President Mujica calls for unity and peace for ‘the day when Chavez is not with us’

Friday, January 11th 2013 - 08:52 UTC

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Wearing his classical dark glasses, Mujica’s was the most sober of speeches

The shortest and most sober of a day of emotional speeches and promises was that from Uruguayan president Jose Mujica who asked the massive rally in support of President Hugo Chavez that if the Venezuelan leader “tomorrow is not with us”, then unity, peace and work must prevail.

“I respect above all a man who is battling for life and he is in the heart of all of you; that is what makes sense. But if tomorrow he is not with us, unity, peace and work must prevail my dear comrades”, said Mujica on Thursday afternoon.

Mujica who travelled to Caracas on request from the Venezuelan government in his condition of chairman of Mercosur addressed the concentration in support of Chavez from the presidential palace of Miraflores, next to Venezuelan leaders and foreign representatives from Latinamerica and the Caribbean, which also included the presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua.

“This afternoon there is an excess of words and when feelings are overwhelming, words are incapable of transmitting them, so I beg you let me shut my mouth because I carry many years on my back and I have seen many demonstrations like this one, and it fills my soul of memories and names of people who are no longer among us”, said an emotional Mujica.

He ended his brief message again calling on the people of Venezuela to remain united and in peace in “the event comrade commander Chavez was to depart”.

Categories: Politics, Latin America, Mercosur, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Tags: Hugo Chávez, José Mujica, Venezuela, Venezuela general elections.

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reality check
One rule for Paraguay, another for Venezuala. Mercosur showing it's true face.
Jan 11th, 2013 - 09:01 am 0
ChrisR
Yes, but Venezuela have got the oil!
Jan 11th, 2013 - 11:32 am 0
Elena
To be fair, Mujica is talking here just about Chavez health state and isn´t in a mercosur reunion to discuss about Venezuela status as a member of it.

Also, while Venezuela very well could do better with a new election process imo because the situation is pretty unclear with Chavez medical state, there is still a difference between a president that falls ill to a president being removed from authority, both countries are in hard internal circunstances without a clear president in charge but the context around both are different. With that said, I still think Paraguay has been unfairly treated by mercosur but this doesn´t mean mercosur should treat Venezuela the same way, one action doesn´t make right the other.
Jan 11th, 2013 - 01:38 pm 0

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