MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former VP Lucía Topolansky resigns seat on Uruguayan Senate after 22 years

“Life goes on and people are not eternal,” Topolansky explained

Former Uruguayan Vice President Lucía Topolansy Wednesday turned in her resignation to her seat on the Senate through a letter after 22 years of Parliamentarian services.

Topolansky, 77 years old and wife of former President José “Pepe” Mujica, was also the first woman ever to reach the country's Vice President, between Sept. 13, 2017 and Feb. 14, 2020, following Raúl Fernando Sendic's resignation.

In a letter sent to current VP and Upper House Speaker Beatriz Argimón, the former guerrilla fighter expressed her gratitude for “the joint work, friendship and knowledge of all the parties with which I lived during this time”.

She also stressed that Parliament was the “most representative political body of the country” and therefore “the work and commitment must be total.”

The now-former Senator on behalf of the Movimiento de Participación Popular (MPP), a political adherent to the progressive/leftwing Broad Front (Frente Amplio) added that after that assessment “I must leave the seat so that the fulfillment of the task may be complete.”

With her departure, together with that of Mujica, the MPP is likely to bring in new political figures such as Montevideo Mayor Carolina Cosse or her Canelones colleague Yamandú Orsi.

“I leave the baton to someone younger who will be able to participate with more strength”, said Topolansky.

“I have worked with all the dedication I could these years and with an open-door office. Two years ago due to the [COVID-19] pandemic, my work has been intermittent,” Topolansky explained.

“For several reasons, I could not adapt to working” online; “therefore I have decided to resign my seat,” she wrote.

In the 1960s and 70s, Topolansky was a member, together with Mujica, of the extinct guerrilla group Movimiento de Liberación Nacional MLN-Tupamaros. In 1970, she was arrested but managed to escape from prison along with 37 other inmates. Two years later, she was arrested again and spent 13 years in prison.

Upon her release, she took part in the creation of the MPP, which would later join the Broad Front. In 2017, she became the first woman to hold the vice presidency in Uruguay.

“Life goes on and people are not eternal, they are always changing and I had this on my horizon, but the pandemic helped me make this decision,” Topolansky also said.

Topolansky will be replaced by Broad Front's Sebastián Sabini.