MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Crowds poured into the streets of Uruguay's capital on Wednesday to bid a poignant farewell to former President José Mujica, a former guerrilla who became a pioneering leader and icon of the Latin American left, remembered most for his humility, simple lifestyle and ideological earnestness.
Thousands of people mourning the death of their former leader, affectionately known as “Pepe,” joined the procession as Mujica's flag-furled coffin, borne on a gun carriage, made its way through downtown Montevideo. It culminated at the country's parliament, where banners, wreaths and portraits of Mujica covered the lawn. “Farewell, Pepe” was painted across the walls of the historic Legislative Palace.
Mujica died Tuesday at the age of 89 in his home on the outskirts of Montevideo — a three-room farmhouse where he lived throughout his life and during his presidency (2010-2015), in rejection of Uruguay’s opulent presidential mansion.
Chants of “Pepe, dear, the people are with you!” rose as the cortege passed through the streets on Wednesday. Uruguayans applauded from balconies, lined the sidewalks along the route and formed a long queue outside the parliamentary seat of Uruguay, waiting to pay their respects to Mujica's closed casket.
“It’s like losing a family member,” said Estela Piriz, a 69-year-old nurse who joined the procession.
Before the public viewing, government officials past and present gathered around his coffin in the stained glass hall. Mujica’s life partner and fellow politician, 80-year-old Lucía Topolansky, emerged from the palace with a stunned expression and left quickly before speaking to reporters.
Among those paying tribute to the late leader were Mujica’s political rivals — a clear sign that the leftist leader's legacy transcended his politics.
“We had many disagreements, but in life it’s always better to focus on the good things,” Former conservative President Luis Alberto Lacalle de Herrera, who governed from 1990-1995, told reporters outside the building.
Uruguay’s president, Yamandú Orsi, Mujica’s longtime interlocutor and protégé from his left-wing Broad Front party, declared Wednesday-to-Friday national days of mourning in a presidential decree that praised Mujica’s “humanist philosophy,” closing the government to all but necessary operations while flags flew at half-staff.
A former mayor and history teacher, Orsi, like Mujica, shunned the presidential palace in favor of his family home and has sought to continue Mujica’s legacy of humility. Mujica made some of his last public appearances campaigning and casting his ballot for Orsi last fall.
Mujica would have turned 90 next week; he was born on May 20, 1935.
During his political career, Mujica earned admiration at home and cult status abroad for legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, enacting the region’s first sweeping abortion rights law and establishing Uruguay as a leader in alternative energy.
Before overseeing the transformation of his small South American nation into one of the world’s most socially liberal democracies as president, Mujica robbed banks, planted bombs and abducted businessmen as the leader of a violent leftist guerrilla group in the 1960s known as the Tupamaros.
Mujica was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in April 2024.
Nayara Batschke, The Associated Press
