SAO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)-started at 10am this Wednesday (14), with a funeral procession that took his body to the Lost Steps Hall at the Legislative Palace in Montevideo, where he will be veiled for at least 24 hours.
Mujica died on Tuesday (13), at the age of 89, as a result of esophageal and liver cancer. Due to death, the Uruguayan government decreed national mourning for three days -Quarta, Thursday and Friday.
The procession departed at 10am from the Executive Tower, headquarters of the Uruguayan government.
The route included 18 de Julho Avenue and passages through symbolic places of the political history of Mujica, such as the headquarters of the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros (Rua Tristán Narvaja), the Popular Participation Movement (Mercedes Street) and the Left Front, a left-wing coalition (Colonia Street). The arrival at the Legislative Palace took place around 1:15 pm.
The wake began at 1:30 pm. In the front row, in front of the coffin, widow Lucía Topolansky, President Yamandú Orsi, Presidency Secretary Alejandro Sánchez, and Senator Blanca Rodríguez said the El País.
The public began to have access to the Lost Steps lost from 2:30 pm. Many of them carried wide front flags and the popular participation movement.
There would be no stipulated time limit, and the wake would continue with its doors open at dawn. The ceremony would end when the family decided to make a more reserved farewell.
Ansrea Barreto indicated that the request made by Mujica’s wife, Lucía Topolansky, was that “the Uruguayans who wanted to approach to say goodbye could do so, with the best convenience, and in that we are working.”
The first Latin American leader to arrive in Uruguay was Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, according to local press, around 3 pm. Gustavo Petro, from Colombia, is also expected.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is returning from travel to China, said he will attend the funeral. The boarding for Montevideo will be this Thursday (15), between 9h and 10h.
On the afternoon of Wednesday (14), Lula spoke once again about the death of Mujica, which was reflected by the Uruguayan press.
In a post on social networks, the Brazilian wrote: “My great friend Pepe, here we will continue with the thousands of arms in the fight for a fairer world.” The phrase was accompanied by a picture of Lula hugging Mujica, with detail in the eyes of the Uruguayan. In the image, it was read, “Hasta sigrepre, friend.” The expression, which means “until ever, friend”, became internationally known, especially on the Latin American left, because of the song “Hasta Sigrepre Commander”, written by Cuban Carlos Puebla in the 1960s as a tribute to Che Guevara after his departure from Cuba.
Former President Luis Lacalle Pou, opponent of Mujica, arrived at the funeral around 14h, to greet the widow and militants. “I get the good things, the positive things,” the national party, told the right right, told El Country.
“Of course we had a lot of misunderstandings, but in life it is always better to keep what is good,” he told the newspaper Daily La R. Lacalle avoided commenting on Mujica as a political figure.: “I’m not an analyst,” he said.
After the wake, the body of Mujica should be cremated. He asked his ashes to be thrown next to his dog Manuela, buried in the farm where he lived, outside Montevideo.
