Uruguay put an end to the funerals of José this Thursday Pepe Mujica, who died on Tuesday at age 89. Some 50,000 people paraded for almost two days in front of their coffin in the Legislative Palace. They were days of a deep respect, ravages for some spontaneous applause or the voice of a singer who wanted to honor. Flores, flags and letters piled up with the passing of the hours in front of the closed drawer, covered with a Uruguayan flag. In a ceremony without crosses or religious symbols —Uruguay is a country that shows its secularism – the only image was that of the country’s shield and that of the Mujica, which smiled on a lectern. The Brazilian Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the Chilean Gabriel Buric closed the ceremony in the middle of the afternoon. They had traveled for 25 hours from China, where they participated in a CELAC summit, the first to say goodbye to a lifelong friend; The second, to a leftist politician who considered a reference.
Lula had a very particular link with Mujica. Last December he visited him at his Casa del Cerro’s house aware that he was facing a final farewell. The news of his death found him in China and did not hesitate to travel half the world to reach the funerals on time in Montevideo. “A person like Pepe does not die. He spent 14 years in jail and was released without hate towards the people who arrested him and tortured him. There are superior human beings and Pepe was a superior human being,” Lula said in a small statement to the press.
The president of Brazil arrived at Congress and for a few minutes he stood next to the drawer. He had his time to be alone, despite the dozens of people around him. He then sat next to Lucia Topolansky, Mujica’s widow, and chatted long. The Brazilian president stroked his hair with affection. “I met many people in my life, but Pepe was a special, affectionate figure, from whom I learned to respect and follow every step he took when he assumed the presidency. I couldn’t stop saying goodbye to him and his wife,” he said.
GARBIEL BORIC arrived somewhat earlier. He occupied all his attention in Topolansky. He sat next to him and chatted with her, both others to the procession of people in front of the Mujica drawer. He was by his side almost an hour talking to him with affection.
Mujica’s funerals were a social event, but also political. On Wednesday, former presidents Julio María Sanguinetti, Luis Lacalle Herrera and Luis Lacalle Pou, all of them fierce opponents of Mujica. The president, Yamandú Orsi, received them with a hug. Álvaro Delgado also joined, the candidate of the National Party who lost the last elections. Concord samples as these are common in the South American country and proud of Uruguayans.
Mujica’s death leaves a huge hole in politics, especially on the left. With him he left the last of the generation of leaders who turned the Broad Front into a coalition of progressive parties with electoral strength and government capacity. In 2020 Tabaré Vázquez died, the first frentista to get to power after the end of the dictatorship in 1985; In 2023 Danilo Astori, Vice President of Mujica, left. Before he died, the former president said he was calm because he left “the very high bar” and in the hands of politicians who trusted.
The procession in Congress was slow but incessant. The mixture of generations caught attention: young students with flags rowed with people who could well be their grandparents. Like Ofelia Fernández, 72, who was a minute on her crutches in front of the drawer with her fist and her wet eyes closed with force. No one dared to interrupt his prayer.
“I asked the old man to help youth, to take the country forward, that there are good people. And I hope you answer it,” says Fernández, speaking “the old man” as if he were already a saint. Fernández was his entire working cleaning life and voted for Mujica’s party since he has political memory, in 1971. “My whole family always voted Pepe, Pepe, Pepe. Lucia is left, which is gold. Hopefully he can hold her in time,” he asks.
Now only the final farewell remains, which will be in privacy. This Friday, Mujica’s remains will be incinerated, as was his will, and scattered under a tree in the farm where he cultivated the earth, sowed flowers and spoke with the animals. Mujica was a politician, one of the last great referents of the Latin American left, but never ceased to be a peasant, as he said. That is why he will return to Earth.
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