By Izquierda Socialista de los Trabajadores
José Alberto Mujica Cordano, better known as “Pepe Mujica,” passed away on May 13. He was born on May 20, 1935, in Montevideo, Uruguay. He won his first seat in Congress in 1989, representing the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) – Broad Front (FA). Mujica was later elected senator and served as Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 under Tabaré Vázquez’s government. In 2010, Mujica was elected president of the republic in the second round with more than 54% of the vote. He then returned to the Senate and resigned in 2020.
A bit of history
Mujica began his political career in the National Party (Blanco), becoming secretary general of the Youth Wing. He later joined the office of Enrique Erro, who, in 1959, had been appointed Minister of Industry and Labor by the first National Party-led government. When Erro left the National Party, he founded the Popular Union, which Mujica joined. The Popular Union was made up of the Nuevas Bases group and the Socialist Party of Uruguay.
In the mid-1960s, however, the context was ripe for the birth of the National Liberation Movement (MLN-Tupamaros), a period marked internationally by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the May ’68 movement in France, and the rise of Latin American guerrilla movements. Mujica would become one of its leaders. The Uruguayan economic crisis and the resulting deterioration in the standard of living of significant portions of the population had been ongoing for years, providing the foundation for the growth of struggles carried out by labor and student movements.
The Uruguayan guerrilla movement was disconnected from workers and primarily represented the middle class. Its leader, Raúl Sendic “el Bebe,” was associated with the sugar cane workers’ union in Bella Unión. Gradually, the MLN increased its confrontations with repressive forces, primarily under the authoritarian regimes of the Colorado Party—first under Jorge Pacheco Areco and then under Juan María Bordaberry—which resulted in the guerrillas going underground. These confrontations ultimately led to the movement’s defeat, and by 1972, most of its leaders were imprisoned or in exile, including José Mujica.
Coup d’état and dictatorship
In 1973, the armed forces staged a coup that was met with a massive general strike. The working class sustained the strike for 15 days; however, due to the orientation of its leadership, the strike was unable to succeed. This marked the beginning of a period of more than 12 years in which a civil-military government intensified human rights violations, including torture, kidnappings, assassinations, and disappearances. There were more than 5,000 political prisoners in Uruguay’s jails. José Mujica was one of nine MLN-T hostages held by the dictatorship under torturous and isolating conditions in various barracks.
José Mujica, his global image, and the facts under his government
Following the conquest of democratic freedoms, the majority of MLN leaders joined the Frente Amplio and assimilated into bourgeois democracy. On March 1, 2010, José Mujica became the second president of the FA-led national government. In October of that same year, the PIT CNT held the first 24-hour general strike. Amidst wage demands and negotiations by public workers, there were several-hour-long occupations at the Supreme Court of Justice, Banco República, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Tacuarembó City Hall. Mujica responded by issuing a decree prohibiting the occupation of public places and authorizing police to evict protesters by force.
In July 2013, a major conflict arose in public education. Mujica addressed the teachers’ demands and told them to work harder: “Four hours, 180 days a year. You have other hours to do other things.”Regarding the teachers’ conflict, he said, “Perhaps they are very young people who have no idea what repression or lack of freedom is. That is why they care so little about how we coexist as Uruguayans.”
In 2011, the National Colonization Institute (INC) reported that, in 2010, foreigners owned 83% of the land purchased in the country, close to four million hectares. Mujica also inaugurated the Montes del Plata cellulose plant, which is foreign-owned and covers 250,000 hectares. In response to complaints about environmental pollution and monoculture, Mujica said, “Nature is the future, but I don’t believe that ecology means condemning ourselves to a snapshot of a moment in time. . . . Man can destroy a lot, but he can also rebuild.”
Mujica and human rights
The latest incident to cause widespread condemnation was Mujica’s support for Lucía Topolansky. In her book, Topolansky stated, “We know who lied within the left, but we are not going to say because we are not traitors or lackeys,” referring to alleged witnesses who testified against military personnel accused of violating human rights. This earned Mujica a harsh statement from the Families of the Disappeared, who expressed their “utmost condemnation of such statements.”
In 2010, President Mujica declared, “I don’t want old prisoners. Old people, aged 75 or 80. Not just military prisoners, but no prisoners at that age.”
However, these were not isolated statements. In 2011, when a vote was to be held to repeal the Impunity Law, José Mujica personally asked MPP deputy Víctor Semproni not to vote for it. After meeting with President Mujica, Semproni, a Frente Amplio deputy, confirmed that he would not vote for the constitutional interpretation bill seeking to repeal the expiry law. This pleased the human rights violators, who continued to enjoy impunity for the most part.
After MPP candidate Yamandú Orsi won the election, José Mujica was visited at his farm by Cabildo Abierto’s ultra-right-wing leader, Manini Ríos. Manini Ríos was promoted to commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces under José Mujica’s presidency. One of the main topics discussed at the meeting was the proposal to release “elderly” military personnel — “the old men” imprisoned for crimes committed during Uruguay’s last dictatorship.
Jorge Zabalza’s opinion on Mujica
Jorge Zabalza, who died recently, was one of the dictatorship’s hostages and a member of the MLN alongside Mujica. In an interview with journalist César Bianchi, Zabalza was asked if there was a pact between the military and the MLN.
He responded, “At this point, the pact of silence is between civilians and the military. Civilians like Mujica are part of that pact.” Fernández Huidobro was the ideologue behind that pact. Vázquez seems to agree with that. The FA does not govern to find truth and justice. It governs to get people to the polls in elections and remain in power, not to find truth and justice. They create 9,000 positions of trust and rent-seeking, which remain there.”
“In Mujica, I see deliberate action to forget and forgive.”
“Mujica promised a way out for the most vulnerable sectors of Uruguayan society. He said he was going to govern for the most disadvantaged, but that promise went unfulfilled. His government devoted itself to pursuing a kind of super-construction: Aratirí, the deep-water port, the regasification plant, and the famous Train of Free Peoples that they were going to build with Cristina Kirchner and UPM.“
“He was a creator of illusions. He made people imagine that he was a great statesman, but he proved to be a lamentable organizer and ruler. I believe he was already duplicitous, with a discourse that calls for justice and truth, yet makes pacts with the military. I left the MLN in 1995 when talks began with the military group led by Eduardo Radaelli, Tomás Casella, and Wellington Sarli“
José Mujica retired in 2020 and was honored by representatives of the bourgeoisie. Under the government of Luis Lacalle Pou, Mujica placed himself at the service of the government and traveled with Lacalle to Brazil “to lend a hand” with relations with Lula (see note). In the Social Security Plebiscite, Mujica opposed the “yes” vote, which sought to eliminate the AFAPs, maintain the age of 60 for retirement, and increase minimum pensions.
At the Izquierda Socialista de los Trabajadores (IST), we hope this article will spark a wide-ranging debate among workers and students. This debate will not only help us understand the FA’s past and present, but also allow us to start building an internationalist, socialist, and revolutionary organization outside the FA.
2) https://mpp.org.uy/jose-pepe-mujica/.
4) https://uruguayeduca.anep.edu.uy/efemerides/488
6) https://www.subrayado.com.uy/semproni-ratifico-mujica-que-no-votara-anulacion-caducidad-n684
