On Wednesday, a ferocious farewell to former President Jose Mujica, a guerrilla fighter-turned-pioneering innovator who became an icon of the Latin American left, was greeted by crowds in Uruguay‘s capital to pay a touching farewell. He is best remembered for his humility, plain lifestyle, and intellectual earnestness. Over the course of three days, thousands of people gathered in downtown Montevideo to watch the procession of Mujica’s flag-covered tomb, ridden on a gun carriage, make its way toward the nation’s parliament. In protest of Uruguay‘s lavish presidential mansion, Mujica died on Tuesday at the age of 89 in his three-room farmhouse on the outskirts of Montevideo, where he lived throughout his life and during his presidency ( 2010-2015 ). ” Pepe, dear, the people are with you” is a common refrain! rose as the motorcade departed. Uruguayans crowded the streets along the way and erupted from staircases as they applauded. In a political order praised Mujica’s “humanist philosophy,” Uruguay‘s leader, Yamandu Orsi, Mujica’s lifelong interlocutors and proteges from his left-wing Broad Front celebration, declared Wednesday to Friday national days of mourning. Flags flew at half-staff, the government was closed to all but required operations. Like Mujica, a former president and past teacher, Orsi, who stayed away from the presidential palace and stayed at his family home, has tried to carry on Mujica’s legacy of humility. Mujica campaigned and cast his vote for Orsi in some of his final public performances next fall. In a private ceremony at the national headquarters, draping a velvet federal symbol over Mujica’s coffin, assisted by current and former officials, including Lucia Topolansky, 80, Mujica’s living partner and fellow politician. Mujica was born on May 20, 1935, and he would have turned 90 the following year. Mujica’s political career earned respect at home and religion following worldwide, passing the first comprehensive laws establishing Uruguay as a leader in alternative energy and legalizing marijuana and same-sex relationship. As senator, Mujica robbed banks, planted bombs, and kidnapped businesspeople as the head of a violent communist guerrilla group known as the Tupamaros, before leading the change of his tiny South American nation into one of the most politically liberal democracies in the 1960s. In April of this year, Mujica was given the diagnosis of gastric cancer.
