The former president of Uruguay José Mujica (89 years old) has reported in an interview with the Uruguayan weekly ‘Búsqueda’ that the cancer that was discovered in his esophagus has now spread to his liver, and he has assured that he is “dying.” “The cancer in the esophagus is colonizing my liver. I don’t stop it with anything. Because? Because I am an old man and because I have two chronic illnesses. Neither biochemical treatment nor surgery fits me because my body can’t handle it,” he stated.
Mujica has announced that he will not give any more interviews and has said that he will not undergo any new treatment. “What I ask is that you leave me alone. Don’t harass me with crazy interviews or anything else. My cycle ended a while ago. Honestly, I am dying and the warrior has the right to rest,” said the former president of Uruguay between 2010 and 2015. Mujica took the opportunity to say goodbye to his “comrades” and his “countrymen.”
The former president has said that he is leaving everything ready to be buried in the small plot of land where he has lived for decades, even when he served as president of Uruguay and “arranging things for those who are going to stay” to live there.
In the interview, Mujica has also expressed his discontent with those who have been inventing “lucubrations” about his role in the future government of the Uruguayan president-elect, Yamandú Orsi. “I have no idea, nor do I plan to get involved in anything, nor do I want to know anything because the worst thing there is is setting up a government,” he said.
“Goodbye, brother, until victory always”
Shortly after the interview was published, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, wrote a tweet to say goodbye to Mujica. “Goodbye brother Pepe and until victory always. I hope our South America has a name: the Amazon and I hope Latin America has a hymn in its unity, as is your dream. The Bolívar officials greet you,” Petro has said on social networks.
From the Popular Participation Movement, Mujica’s party, they have also sent him a message of affection. “Pepe dear! You always told us that you were going to serve in the military until the last day, you have complied and we know that you will continue to do so. “This bar will hug you until the end,” they wrote.
As confirmed by EFE, Mujica’s personal doctor, Raquel Pannone, will give a press conference in which she will provide more details about the former president’s health.
Mujica announced that he had a tumor in April
On April 29, 2024, Mujica announced in a press conference that he had a tumor in his esophagus. “I need to inform you that last Friday I went to the Casmu (medical center) to have a check-up in which it was discovered that I have a tumor in the esophagus, which is something obviously very serious and which is doubly complex in my case, because I suffer from a disease immunological more than 20 years ago,” the former president said that day. Shortly after, he noted that the tumor was malignant and should be treated with radiotherapy, a procedure that was carried out in Montevideo.
On December 27, the former president underwent surgery in which a stent was successfully placed in his esophagus. “We did it today because the situation required it at this time. This will allow him to continue feeding orally,” Pannone said after the intervention.
In recent months, Mujica’s public appearances have been few and far between, and they have sounded like a farewell. Last October he intervened by surprise at the closing of his party’s campaign and told an excited audience that when he leaves “there will be thousands of arms replacing the fight.” In August he also reappeared at a rally after a hospital admission; “I am from a generation that is leaving, but the fight continues,” he said then.
His last appearance was with the Brazilian president. Lula da Silva approached Pepe Mujica’s “farm” at the beginning of December to award him with Brazil’s highest distinction, and both appeared excited and affectionate with each other. “He is the most extraordinary person I have ever met,” Lula said of Mujica. “I am not a man of medals, but this is a friend of many years, one of the best I have found in this long-suffering America,” the Uruguayan responded.
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