Uruguay lived on Wednesday a day of collective mourning after the, dismissed by a sea of militants and walking citizens who held the center of Montevideo to the shout of ‘Pepe, friend, the town is with you’.
The ceremonies to say goodbye to Mujica began at 10 in the morning in Montevideo, when the funeral courtship of former Uruguayan president departed from the capital’s executive tower to the world’s most famous farm. In that unique site, between Yucas, Arces and Pecaneros, under a seduoya in which the remains of the Manuela dog rest, there the remains of the man who took care of that land until his last days will be deposited.
The remains of ‘Pepe’ were transferred in a cure, a transport similar to a cart and used in the ceremonies of funeral honors, dragged by six army horses and covered with a Uruguayan flag and another of the national hero José Artigas.
The courtship slowly advanced through the streets of the capital, guarded by militants of the popular participation movement, historical sector of the Frente Amplio created by the ex -president, who marched wearing black shirts with a phrase of Mujica in the back: “I am not leaving, I am arriving.”
The militants joined hundreds of citizens who accompanied the courtship with flags of Uruguay, a wide front, arc flags and even Palestine. Another thousands, including the elderly and families with children, said goodbye to the late leader from their balconies, their stores or simply thanking him to see him pass, many in tears. The coffin went through the headquarters of the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement and the offices of the Popular Participation and the Broad Front Movement. “Pepe did not leave, now there are thousands of Pepe Mujica. Thank you old,” said the Secretary of the Presidency, Alejandro Sánchez, during the courtship stop against the headquarters of the Frente Amplio.
The remains of José Mujica arrived at 1:15 p.m. to the esplanade of the Legislative Palace, where a group of men was waiting for him, including President Yamandú Orsi, who loaded the coffin and took him to the hall of lost steps. Once inside, an intimate ceremony took place first and then the doors opened for the entry of the general public, which early in the morning piled up in an endless row waiting to enter. A few meters from the coffin were the widow of Mujica, Lucía Topolansky, Orsi himself and other referents of the Broad Front and Uruguayan politics.
One of those who came to say goodbye was the former president and reference of the opposition Luis Lacalle Pou, who said later that, despite the ideological discrepancies he had with the late ex -president, “in life it is always better to keep the good and not with the other.” Among the most outstanding speeches of the day, the President Orsi, who was moved and hit by the farewell of the population to the deceased leader and called to “honor his memory.” “Every time a leader disappears, the question is how that construction is sustained,” he said about Mujica’s political legacy, and added: “We are many who have to take the post.”
Emotion in the streets of Montevideo in the last goodbye to José ‘Pepe’ Mujica.
After an extensive day of mourning, the first of three of the National Duel decreed by the Executive, the Legislative Palace will close its doors to midnight and open again this Thursday at 10:00 a.m. For this Thursday the arrival of important figures of international politics including Gabriel Boric and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, presidents of Chile and Brazil, respectively.
‘Pepe’ Mujica died on Tuesday in Montevideo at age 89, a year after they discovered a malignant tumor in the esophagus and when he lacked a week to reach the nineties. “With deep pain we communicated that our partner Pepe Mujica died. President, militant, referent and driver. We are going to miss you a lot of dear. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people,” President Orsi announced in his account of X.
On April 29 of last year, Mujica announced that he had a tumor in the esophagus. Shortly after, he revealed that he was malignant and that it should be treated with radiotherapy, a procedure to which he was subjected in Montevideo. At the beginning of this year, the former president informed that the cancer that was discovered in the esophagus had expanded to the liver.
The most famous farm in the world, that for which they passed from Reyes to philosophers, dawns different without him, which, although he had no children because he dedicated himself to “changing the world” and time went, took care of every corner of it, each flower and plant, as if they were. A bird poses on a branch. A blind worm sinks on earth. The transparent nylon of the greenhouse pululates with the wind and lets pass the sunlight while, inside, the flowers still do not know that they were orphaned. Over there. In the corner of the hill.
