Posted 13/05/2025 17:03 | Edited 13/05/2025 17:04
Former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica, one of the most fascinating figures of contemporary politics, died on Tuesday afternoon (13), victim of esophagus cancer. In a week, on May 20, Mujica would be 90 years old.
The disease had advanced so rapidly in recent days that Lucía Topolansky, his wife 40 years ago, warned on Monday (12) that Mujica was under palliative care, in the terminal phase. It was a warning that the former president’s exemplary life was ending.
In January, in a moving way, the Uruguayan leader announced that, due to advanced age and other health problems, he would not have the strength to face conventional treatments. Thus, Mujica said goodbye to public life. “I am dying,” said the man who, among other deep marks, was known for his lucidity, wisdom and simplicity.
Born on May 20, 1935, in Montevideo, Mujica left his name marked in Uruguayan and worldwide political history for characteristics not always common to public men. With simple habits, he had lived for years in a small place on the outskirts of Montevideo, with Lucia Topolansky.
In the backyard, where he used to have mate with his partner and visitors, a 1987 Beetle, which became one of the symbols of his stripping – characteristic, in fact, common to the Uruguayan people – shared space with their plants and animals.
His detachment and modest life earned him the title of “poorest president in the world.” In response, he sent one more of his famous phrases: “I’m not poor. I am sober, light baggage. I live with just enough so that things do not steal my freedom.”
Manuela
For 22 years, Mujica also had the company of Manuela, the three -legged dog that was famous for appearing with him in photos and during interviews. The dog-who died in 2018-lost one of his members after an accident with a tractor led by the former president, who was also a farmer and florner.
After the loss, Mujica resigned as a senator. “There is time to arrive and leave, time does not forgive or the stones. I will confess to you, do you know when I made my decision? When Manuela died. I still miss you,” he said in an interview with TV Telemundo.
About the facet of Floricultor, it is worth remembering a curiosity: in 2013, a perfume made with the essence of flowers and herbs from its site represented Uruguay in the Venice Biennial.
The perfume “Pepe” was born as an artist Martín Sastre’s satire to luxury products of major cosmetics brands and gained fictitious shape in a purple bottle aired in a 2012 video, whose name was “U of Uruguay”. But then the product was actually made in a very limited edition. There were three bottles, one given to the president, one to Sastre and one to be auctioned for charity, according to EFE.
In the presidency
Between 2010 and 2015, Mujica was the 40th president of Uruguay, the second left of the country, after Tabaré Vasquez, its predecessor. The election of Mujica occurred amid the wave of leftist and progressive leaders who began to occupy the power of their countries in Latin America from the 2000s.
In October 2009, by celebrating the winning win in the second round, former guerrilla Tupamaro, arrested for more than a decade for the dictatorship and elevated to the highest post of the nation, has pronounced one more of his remarkable lines: “Do you know one thing, people? The world is on legs to the air. You should be here. (on the stage)and we down there, applauding, ”he said.“ We elected a government that does not own the truth and need everyone. It cost me a life to understand that power is in the masses. ”
During his term, Mujica became internationally recognized for the advanced measures he adopted on topics that were taboo in many countries. Even in the highest position in the country, he resigned to live in the presidential mansion to which he was entitled and donated 90% of his salary, which was around $ 12,000 per month.
“We have to escape slavery that imposes material dependence, which is one of the things that steal the most time in contemporary society,” he once told the weekly Search. “If you get dragged on the pressures of consumer society, there is no money that reaches, it has no end, it is infinite,” he added.
Under its government, Uruguay became, in 2013, the first country in the world to legalize marijuana production and sale, an initiative that, by ensuring the state control over drug use, helped combat drug trafficking. At the same time, the measure avoids unnecessary arrests of users, overcrowding of arrests and the strengthening of internal factions, as occurs in Brazil
It was also under his term that, in that same year, Uruguay began to allow same -sex marriage. A year earlier, abortion was legalized, guaranteeing women the right to interrupt pregnancy safely.
The Broad Front, a political alliance that had Mujica as one of its main names, was responsible for profound social changes in the country, which began before his government, still with Tabaré Vasquez, continued during his term and extended beyond him.
Between 2005 and 2020, Uruguay had a drastic drop in the poverty rate, which went from 30% to 8% – there were virtually no homeless people. The country’s growth was constant and unemployment plummeted from 22% in 2005 to 6.9% in 2015. In addition, in that same period of 15 years, GDP to happen From the country it grew three times, jumping from $ 4.72 to $ 15.56.
These and many other achievements have largely resulted from the work of all their team and the government set up from the wide front, but also to the deeply humanist vision that the former president has always carried and that he was strengthened during the years he was arrested.
Tupamaro leader
One of the leaders of the Tupamaro National Liberation Movement – an opponent of the growing authoritarianism that took over the country and Latin America and was harshly pursued by the Uruguayan military dictatorship – Mujica was arrested four times, two of which managed to escape.
His longest arrest was between 1972 – after surviving six shots – and 1985, when democracy was restored. In part of this period, he was in a lonely; At so many moments, it was brutally tortured. About the prison, he later stated with good humor: “I didn’t go crazy because I was already crazy.” On another occasion, he stressed: “After the death penalty, loneliness is one of the hardest punishments.”
His life and the lessons he left were richly told in several books and movies, including three recent film productions that won the world. The youngest is the documentary Pepe’s dreams (2024), by Pablo Trobo, who was a cameraman during his presidential campaign.
Already A twelve year night (2018), by Álvaro Brechner, tells fictionally, how were the years of arrest of Mujica and his companions. Finally, THE PEPE, UMA SUPREME LIFE (2018), by Emir Kusturica, scrub the way of thinking and learning that the former president had throughout his life and made him among some of the wisest public men of contemporary times.
After a rich and admirable trajectory, guided, above all, for the struggle to build a new, fair and egalitarian society, Pepe was eventually defeated by cancer. Months earlier, when he participated in a rally of the then presidential candidate and current president, Yamandu Orsi, Mujica already predicted that the end was approaching. “When these arms are, there will be millions of arms in the fight. Thanks for existing. Until always.” We thank you, Pepe!
Source: vermelho.org.br
