MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's President to bring along two former colleagues to Lula's inauguration

Lacalle insisted on leaving aside their differences for the greater good of the country

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou Friday invited his predecessors Julio María Sanguinetti and José Mujica to the Jan. 1 inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva in Brasilia.

Lacalle said his initiative had been driven by Uruguay's need to underline the democratic and republican continuity of the country while putting aside their political differences and daily quarrels.

Through this move, Uruguay conveys an image of trustworthiness that is “very important in an increasingly smaller and globalized world,” Lacalle went on.

“We will see how the picture turns out, but the idea of seeing two former presidents accompanying the current president at Lula's inauguration is an encouraging sign. Above all is the strength of the institutions and the republican image of Uruguay. And an expected signal to the region,” Canelones Mayor Yamandú Orsi, one of the opposition Broad Front's likely presidential candidates, posted on his @OrsiYamandu Twitter account.

On confirming he had accepted Lacalle's invitation, Mujica said that attending Lula's third inauguration was a “diplomatic gesture a little unusual, especially in Latin America; one of the small luxuries that Uruguay can afford.”

“He invites us and we decided to accompany him because collaborating with a small diplomatic gesture, with a country as important for Uruguay as Brazil is, seems to me that it is a matter of principle, above any other consideration,” Mujica explained while admitting that there are hard differences between him and Sanguinetti and Lacalle, both of whom represent the ruling Multicolor coalition.

Mujica said it was a “republican effort, cultivating an image of bonhomie for the country” because it was necessary to “learn to live together with differences, but to live together, keeping each one of us our own positions,” to understand that “we make up a 'we' as a country.”

“Anyone knows that I am a friend of Lula's, that I have a friendship of many years, and that I have a level of relationship that is not common,” Mujica also pointed out.

“I have to contribute to improving as much as possible the relationship with Uruguay, on all fronts,” he added. “Whatever arises is not my responsibility, I am a small bridge and time will bear its fruit.”