MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

José 'Pepe' Mujica begs Hamas for Latin American hostages

The hostages will not solve the problems of the Palestinians, Mujica argued

Former Uruguayan leftwing President José 'Pepe' Mujica Thursday called on the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas to release the Latin American hostages captured since the beginning of the conflict with Israel on Oct. 7, it was reported in Montevideo.

Through a video released on social media, Mujica begged “the Palestinians who are holding a handful of Latin American hostages in Gaza to let them live.”

“I would like to believe in God, but, to those who believe in some divine form, I ask them, please... And in this case, the Palestinians who are holding a handful of Latin American hostages in Gaza to leave them alive, to let them reach their villages,” Mujica said before insisting that the hostages “are not going to solve the Palestinian problem.”

“The just cause that they could have had historically by sacrificing people, who in reality are compatriots of Latin America and it hurts us and, therefore, on behalf of my compatriots I dare to ask and beg the people who are holding this handful of Latin Americans hostage, to let them return to their homes, to do it for the God they believe in, to do it for hope,” the former President stated.

Some 3,000 people were killed in Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip as part of reprisals following the October 7 incursion of hundreds of Islamist militiamen who killed some 1,400 people and kidnapped nearly 200.