The former president of Uruguay, José “Pepe” Mujica, 89, crosses the terminal phase of esophagus cancer that were detected a year ago. He remains in his farm in Rincón del Cerro, on the outskirts of Montevideo, where he receives palliative care to cope with pain and rest calmly. His wife, former vice president and former senator Lucía Topolansky, explained this weekend that the goal is now to guarantee quality of life in this final stretch.
“It is with palliative care. At this stage, they are trying to be without pain, that you can sleep and have no anxiety; that it is your best,” he said on Sarandí Radio, during a special transmission on the occasion of the departmental elections. “I am more than 40 years ago with him and I will be until the end; that was what I promised,” Topolansky finished, who also asked for respect for family intimacy: “With a character like Pepe is half impossible.”
On April 29 of last year, Mujica publicly announced that he had a tumor in the esophagus. He did it at a press conference after going to the CASMU Medical Center for a check. “It is obviously very committed and doubly complex in my case, because I suffer an immune disease for more than 20 years,” he said then. Shortly after confirming that the tumor was malignant and that it would receive radiotherapy in Montevideo.
A year of operations, treatments and complications
On December 27, the ex -president was operated to place a stent in the esophagus. His personal doctor, Raquel Pannone, explained that the intervention was successful and allowed him to continue eating orally. Before that operation, gastrostomy had already been practiced to facilitate food. In January of this year, Mujica reported in an interview with the weekly search that cancer had extended to the liver.
The president of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, revealed this Sunday that his political reference “is delicate of health and cannot move.” Last Thursday he went to his farm. “We are trying to take care of it and do not do things that can harm it,” he explained. Orsi, chosen as candidate of the Frente Amplio for the presidential presidential ones, has maintained a close relationship with Mujica for decades.
During the departmental and municipal elections of Sunday, Mujica did not come to vote on medical recommendation. The Secretary of the Presidency, Alejandro Sánchez, explained that the former president varies according to the day. “Sometimes it is better, sometimes it is a little more sore. It is part of this process and we are accompanying it.”
“We owe it a lot”
The president of the Frente Amplio, Fernando Pereira, stressed on Monday the political dimension of the ex -president. “He has commented that he is at the end of his life cycle. We owe him a lot, especially the front women, also as one of our presidents and as an undisputed leader of Uruguay in Latin America and the world,” he said before the media.
Pereira also said that on Friday he held a meeting with Mujica and talked about the international situation, the role of China, the conflict with the United States and the global insertion options for Uruguay. He also highlighted the confidence of the former president that Orsi makes “a great presidency” because “in addition to ideas and leadership, he knows how to listen.”
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, expressed his “support and love” on Monday to the Uruguayan former president. “Dear Pepe, in these difficult times I want to send you my deepest feeling of support and love,” he wrote in his X account. He recalled his political legacy and transmitted his “most sincere solidarity” to Topolansky. “The union they have shared over the years is a true testimony of love and an example for all of us,” he added.
