José “Pepe” Mujica, former president of Uruguay, passed away on Tuesday (13/05), at the age of 89, a victim of esophagus cancer. He ruled the country between 2010 and 2015. In life, the former president nourished a strong love for football, especially for the national team and Club Atlético Cerro, club of Montevideo.
The love heated by the sport led Mujica to express opinions contrary to FIFA during the World Cup dispute in 2014.
At the time, Pepe Mujica complained from the punishment to Luis Suárez, who bit Chiellini from Italy, in a group stage game. With the absence, Uruguay was eliminated by Colombia, in the round of 16.
“FIFA is a bunch of old children of P … they could have sanctioned him, but not with fascist sanctions,” Mujica said.
Suárez was suspended for nine matches and removed for four months of football.
The former president of Uruguay avoided going to the stadium, as he considered himself “cold foot”.
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Mujica’s life
José Alberto Mujica Cordano Born in Montevideo on May 20, 1935. In the 1960s, he became a member of the Guerrilla National Liberation Movement – Tupamaros.
His period in prison throughout the dictatorship was marked by torture and precarious conditions, being maintained for long periods in the solitary. In all, he spent 14 years of his life behind bars.
In 1985, Mujica was released after the enactment of an amnesty decree. He entered the institutional policy, helped found the Left Party of Popular Participation Movement (MPP) and was elected deputy in 1994.
Presidency
Mujica also created an international moderation image that earned him comparisons with former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Alongside his wife, Lucía Topolansky, Mujica drew attention as a simple head of state of living, who lived in a simple place of site around the capital and drove her own Beetle year 1987 to the executive’s headquarters at Independência Square.
He returned to the Senate after leaving the presidency, until he delivered the position in 2020, amid the Pandemia of Covid-19, for health reasons.
Illness
In April 2024, he announced that he had a stomach tumor, with the “very committed” organ. He also stated that his health condition was “doubly complex” as he suffered from an immune disease for over 20 years that had affected the kidneys.
