Latin American left bids farewell to Pepe Mujica: ‘We’ll miss you very much, dear old man’

“Latin America is in mourning,” wrote former Bolivian president Evo Morales on social media upon learning of the death of former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica at the age of 89. It is a sentiment shared by the entire progressive left in the Americas, which has been orphaned by one of its most beloved and globally recognized figures. Political and social leaders bid farewell to Mujica with moving messages praising his honesty, humility, and commitment to Latin American integration, and hoping that he will serve as an example for future generations.

Mujica, who had been in serious condition for months due to esophageal and liver cancer, died at his home on Tuesday afternoon. The news was announced by Uruguay’s head of state, Yamandú Orsi, also a member of Mujica’s Frente Amplio (Broad Front). “President, activist, leader, and guide. We will miss you very much, dear old man. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your profound love for your people,” Orsi said in a tweet that went viral. One of the parties in Uruguay’s governing coalition, the Movement of Popular Participation, published a video of Mujica in which he encourages people to live life “generously,” to cultivate affection, and to consider economic growth “not an end, but a means.”

Morales, who met Mujica when they were presidents of Bolivia and Uruguay, respectively, between 2010 and 2015, highlighted the importance he placed on the Latin American Patria Grande (Greater Homeland). “I always remember his advice, full of experience and wisdom,” said Morales, “his teachings and his great example remain.” Mujica’s term also coincided with that of Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who chose to remember him as “a great man who dedicated his life to activism and his homeland.”

Boric: “You left us with unquenchable hope”

Chilean President Gabriel Boric used Mujica as an example to never give up: “My dear Pepe, I imagine you leaving, worried about the bitterness surrounding the world today. But if you left us anything, it was the unquenchable hope that things can be done better — ”step by step so as not to go off the rails," as you used to say — and the unwavering conviction that as long as our hearts beat and there is injustice in the world, it’s worth continuing to fight." Boric also sent his best wishes to Mujica’s widow, Lucía Topolansky, whom he described as “another giant of the Americas,” “to your Uruguayan people whom you loved so much, and to the entire world.”

“Goodbye, friend,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said. “I hope that Latin America will one day have an anthem; I hope that South America will one day be called Amazonia. Today I firmly believe that the Latin American integration project involves building, like the European Union, a Grancolombian Union, which, in the heart of Latin America and the Caribbean, will take the decisive step toward integration.” Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez added that Mujica “chose to live as he thought” and expressed the hope that “his sowing of conscience, solidarity, and humanity will be the harvest of generations to come.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum offered her condolences to family, friends, and the people of Uruguay and praised Mujica as “an example for Latin America and the entire world for the wisdom, foresight, and simplicity that characterized him.”

Condolences for the passing of Uruguay’s most famous president crossed continental borders. From Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asserted that “politics makes sense when it’s lived like this, from the heart.” Sánchez asserted that Mujica “believed, campaigned, and lived” to build “a better world.”

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