MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula lands in Montevideo for Mujica's memorial

Lula met with Topolansky, Orsi, and Boric in front of Mujica's casket. Photo: Frente Amplio

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva landed in Montevideo Thursday for the memorial of former Uruguayan head of State José Pepe Mujica at the Legislative Palace. The Brazilian leader, flying straight from China, where he attended a series of multinational engagements, met with Mujica's widow and former Vice President Lucía Topolansky, current Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, and Chile's Gabriel Boric Font, who also participated in the Asian gatherings.

A large crowd waving flags of Mujica's MPP waited outside the Uruguayan Congress to pay their last respects to the deceased leftist leader, who died of cancer on Tuesday, aged 89. MPP stands for Movimiento de Participación Popular (Popular Participation Movement). It is the political movement in Uruguay that Mujica helped found in 1989. The MPP is part of the Frente Amplio coalition and is known for its leftist and progressive policies.

Signed by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin in Lula's absence, Brazil's Government declared three days of mourning. The measure appeared in an extra issue of the Diário Oficial da União.

Mujica, a key figure in regional integration through Mercosur, Unasur, and Celac, was awarded Brazil’s Order of the Southern Cross in December, the highest decoration available to foreign nationals.

While standing in front of the closed casket, Lula embraced Topolansky, Orsi, and Boric, taking center stage. Pepe Mujica was “an example that political struggle and tenderness can go hand in hand,” Lula highlighted.

From Beijing, Lula said he was “full of sadness” for the farewell of Mujica, with whom he had a close friendship, and highlighted the “human greatness” of the former Uruguayan president, a reference of the left in Latin America.

“His life was an example that political struggle and tenderness can go hand in hand. And that courage and strength can be accompanied by humility and detachment,” said Lula, who met with Mujica every time he went to Montevideo. In March, they attended Orsi's inauguration.

“In his almost 90 years of life, Mujica fought fervently against the dictatorship that existed in his country. He defended, like few others, democracy. And he never stopped fighting for social justice and for the end of all inequalities,” Lula said.

Most South American leaders recognized Mujica's role as one of the “main architects of Latin American integration.” Pepe Mujica's legacy “will endure, guiding all those who genuinely believe in the integration of our region as an inescapable path to development and in our ability to build a better world for future generations,” Itamaraty said in a statement.

Lula was to deliver a speech later Thursday.