Mujica: the terrorist who forever divided Uruguayan society

Mujica, the farmer. A few days ago, the new government took office in our country. The left returned, although for a small handful of Uruguayans we believe that, in reality, the left never left. In that sense, the disappointment and sadness remain for those convinced that the coalition represented an alternative to the Broad Front, while for liberals, March first simply represented a change of collar on the same dog.  

The movement that will represent our country for the next 5 years is a mix of Tupamaros, communists, and social democrats, where there is no longer a leading figure. Vázquez and Astori are no longer present, and Mujica has left party politics due to health issues. The Broad Front, in terms of leaders, was left headless, and this text is about his figure and the legacy I understand he left in our country.  

Mujica has been giving some notes or sporadic public appearances in recent years, but he officially left his activity as an elected senator along with Sanguinetti in October 2020. On that day, the political caste, journalists, and public figures rejoiced at the fact that these two figures chose the same day for their retirement, as if that were somehow an "ode to democracy" considered an "exemplary" gesture for the world. At least they seemed to interpret it that way.  

Regarding Julio María Sanguinetti, I have many criticisms of his ideological political profile, a statesman of all hours, a concept he draws as "reformist." Beyond this, I don't hesitate for a second to acknowledge my respect for several points that are not relevant to this column, the most important being his central role in the return to democracy. That makes me think several times before writing about him.  

On that day, in his final speech, Sanguinetti opted for a poem with a message of reconciliation between ideological rivals, typical of a statesman who bets on peaceful coexistence between collectivism and liberalism, something that only leads to failure. Despite this, he finally mentioned that "in these times the citizen feels increasingly represented by himself." And today we can answer: Yes, Julio, fortunately, it is so, and hopefully, there will be more of us.  

Meanwhile, in that October 2020, José Mujica also gave a final message in his farewell from the palace of democracy. Given the context and the protagonist, I would have expected his classic deep and philosophical message, or that he would enlighten us with one of his moralistic advice for the world, always in the tone he had accustomed us to, like that speech he gave at the UN and was retweeted by leftist artists from several countries.  

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However, to my surprise, his central message and mostly quoted by the media was a self-referential message: "In my garden, I haven't cultivated hatred for decades. I learned a hard lesson that life taught me. Hatred ends up making you stupid." This message surprised me quite a bit, he chose a message that almost seemed as if he were justifying or "defending" himself, as if someone had accused him of something.  

Wasn't this moment worthy of a slightly more significant message, Pepe? Where was the speech about the importance of time? Where were the pieces of advice to people about what to do with their money? But above all, I wondered: why was it necessary to clarify that he didn't cultivate hatred? Was that the most important thing he had to say in his farewell from parliament?  

And then I realized. It's normal for the older ones, in the twilight of their working stage, to tend to give a lot of value to all the work they have done during their life and therefore to the prestige of the mark they leave. Of all the things he could say, Mujica understood that, at that moment, the most appropriate thing to point out, the most important thing to say was that he didn't cultivate hatred, because cultivating hatred was exactly what he did all his life.  

It must be considered that to cultivate hatred it is not strictly necessary to shout or attack with a violent tone. Rather, a soft tone is more effective, from a person with the appearance of a wise grandfather, to convey messages like "the soldiers are meat with eyes," "I only talk to canaries with thick fingers" or permanently denoting the "gold mesh" as if they had done something to him or to society in general.  

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Mujica joined in the sixties the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros (MLN-T), better known simply as Tupamaros, and beyond the different interpretations of historical events, no one denies that it was a clandestine resistance against the government of the time, which was constitutional and democratic. They soon conceived a strategy of armed struggle against what the people had chosen.  

Mujica was arrested for the fourth and final time in the seventies, and a few decades later, he became a parliamentarian and then president. In other words, he always lived off the state, off the people, off the effort of others. I trust that time will put things in their place, and that someday we will realize the disaster that his presidency was and the unbelievable luck we had that an international context "masked" the unprecedented waste that occurred in what was the worst government management in our history.  

Sometime we will realize the terrible damage Mujica did to Uruguay, with the deepest damage being at the cultural level, especially among the youth where he had more reach. With messages of resentment among us, or of detachment from work and individual projection for the future and wanting to be better than yesterday. But no, he needed to be waving the flag of conformism and false humility, taking us further away from the greatness and potential that our country, our people have.  

Obviously, it makes sense that he "defended" himself on that October 20, 2020, and he let us know in the last minutes, in the extra time, because he himself realized it. Mujica has no idea what merit and the work of achieving something with dignity are, and his only mark is having caused and consolidated a terrible gap in our country and a loss of values that will last for several generations.  

Today I satisfy the desire to write this opinion column that since that October 2020 I wanted to tell. And obviously, it goes without saying that like any person, I wish Mujica the best for his health. But hopefully, Sanguinetti was right on that day, and that in this country we increasingly feel represented by ourselves, and not by people like José Mujica.