MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Low cost, no frills ceremony planned for Mujica’s March inauguration

Plaza Independencia where the big open celebration is scheduled to take place

Uruguayan president elect Jose Mujica anticipated that the inauguration ceremony next March first will be in the open, paid by “friends” with no military parade, but with numerous music and dance groups playing to make it a real popular celebration, according to several reports in the Montevideo press.

“I’m going to find the way so that the big party is not paid by the government. My friends will pick up the bill”, said Uruguay’s next president allegedly in reference to groups close to the ruling coalition Broad Front and to militants of that political force.

Mujica said that the presidential sash will be handed to him by current head of state Tabare Vazquez in Plaza Independencia, a vast open square with gardens, fountains and a monument and mausoleum to Uruguay’s founder, Jose Artigas, just across from the former Government House.

“We’re going to have a very modest stage, not too high (so we won’t get dizzy) at the foot of the statue to Artigas, our father of the country.

“Following the speech in Parliament, I’m planning to travel in an old open car but if the weather is good I’ll walk to Plaza Independencia”, he added.

In Uruguay the newly elected Parliament is sworn in on February 15th and on March first the head of the Senate (the Senator of the slate most voted of the winning party) takes the oath to the new president and vice-president during a solemn ceremony in the Parliament building packed with distinguished visitors including visiting heads of state and of government.

In this very particular case, the First Lady Senator Lucia Topolansky Mujica will be taking the oath to her husband and president Jose Mujica. Senator Topolansky was the most voted Senator of the winning slate of the winning party in last October’s national election.

The incoming president then moves to Government House, seat of the Executive where the outgoing president hands over the symbols of the high office.

Mujica is expected to announce his ministerial cabinet (most names have been advanced by the local press) in the next few hours before taking for a brief vacation.

Mujica was born 20 May 1935 and since adolescent was involved in politics with one of Uruguay’s two historic parties (National party), but later, in the sixties, opted for the urban guerrilla movement Tupamaros.

The armed guerrilla movement was crushed by the Uruguayan military which then took over government from 1973 to 1985. Mujica spent thirteen years in jail until the 1985 amnesty when all political-related prisoners were set free at the return of democracy.