Special interview with Juan Raul Ferrera, international analyst, on the repercussion of Pepe Mujica's death as well as his legacy for the politics of Uruguay and the region. teleSUR
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00:00Hello everyone in Telesur English. As we know, the Uruguayan people is bidding farewell to former President Jose Pepe Mujica,
00:08accompanying the leader's funeral procession right now in Montevideo, all the way to the Legislative Palace.
00:13Let's now welcome international analyst Juan Raul Ferreira to talk more on Pepe Mujica's life and impact not only in Uruguay, abroad, but abroad as well.
00:23Welcome to From the South, Juan.
00:26Well, thank you very much, Luis Alberto. It's a great honor for me.
00:32It's a great honor for me to be in such a sad day, sad for the world.
00:38And it's very shocking for us Uruguayans to see how the entire world reacted to his death.
00:48A simple man, a humble man, a man that had no pretensions, and starting from the new pope, going over conservative, liberal, and revolutionary governments all over the world, have reacted in mourn, have reacted in sadness.
01:12We have received messages from President Maduro from Venezuela, President Petro from Colombia, President Lula from Brazil, all over the world, all over the world.
01:27Myself, my cell phone has received calls from all over the world, friends that one has made along so many years of political struggle, journalism and writing books.
01:45And everybody is calling shocked.
01:49We Uruguayans were aware that he was in his last stage.
01:54He used to say it.
01:56And when he didn't show up to vote last Sunday, we realized the time had come.
02:05And I myself had been in his chakra in his farm only 10 days ago.
02:14Yesterday, my wife spoke to his wife and she said it's going to happen anytime.
02:22So one thought that we were getting ready to the situation.
02:29But when the time comes, we weren't.
02:32People crying in the streets.
02:35Well, not to say along the ways where he passed in his last farewell to the city.
02:43Stopping by on the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaro's headquarters.
02:50Then in the Frente Amplio, the coalition headquarters.
02:53And in his own party, the MPP, to which I personally belong.
02:58And people crying, people from all ages, old people that were militants at his time.
03:09People of his age who were not militants, but were convinced by his way of life and his sacrifice all over.
03:21And young people.
03:24Personally, Luis Alberto, let me tell you when I had to say a few words when he passed to the press, when he passed by the MPP, the Movimiento de Participación Popular headquarters.
03:38I saw some young people involved in the MPP flag.
03:45And I ran and embraced them and told them, now it's in your hands.
03:53And we all embraced together and cried a lot.
03:57This, let me tell you, for me, is really something.
04:01Because, when I was only 23 years, I barely escaped from the Plan Condor in Buenos Aires, and some of my friends died.
04:13And ever since, I haven't been able to cry out of sadness.
04:19But today, I'm not ashamed to say and to recognize, I cried.
04:25I'm sorry, I'm sad, but Pepe Mujica's counsel, friendship, smile, the way to show us where to go for, will no longer be there.
04:42That's what the Uruguayan people, even those who disagree with them, I just saw on the TV, I'm on my way in a few minutes to the legislative palace.
04:54I saw President Sanguinetti, an adversary.
04:58President Lacalle Herrera, an adversary.
05:01President Lacalle Pou, a strong adversary.
05:05They all walked together to give the last farewell to Pepe Mujica.
05:11We will have to, it will take some time to get used in Uruguay to his absence.
05:23An important loss that the Uruguayan people have suffered because it was very beloved.
05:27I was wondering, Juan, if we can talk a bit about his journeys, his beginnings as a guerrilla fighter with the Tupamaros.
05:34How did this experience of imprisonment when he was fighting against the dictatorship back then, the torture and the 14 years in solitary confinement,
05:42do you think how did this shape his political philosophy and how it made him approach the leadership?
05:49I think it was vital.
05:52Many times speaking to him, he would say, people believe that the nature is silent.
06:01No, nature is very noisy.
06:04You can't imagine, he used to tell me, how noisy it was for, to listen, ants, flies, small insects.
06:20They make, make such a concert at night.
06:24And he was together as there were nine hostages of the national liberation movement to Tupamaros taken by the military as hostages.
06:37You take any action will kill them.
06:40And they spent that way 12 years in a whole by in groups of three.
06:46And his two companions were a Russo Rosinkov, who is still alive.
06:54It was very difficult for me to embrace him today.
06:58And another Tupamaros leader, who was his minister of defense, who is already dead.
07:10He is probably, Rosinkov is probably the only survival of the nine hostages.
07:17Fernandez Huidobro was the other one of the group of three.
07:22But they communicated by the wall, making signals, sound signals, a special morse they had invented themselves to communicate.
07:38But that helped him understand what the real values of life were.
07:45He never was a man of consumption.
07:50And he never paused as a poor man as part of his image campaign.
07:58It was only natural on him.
08:01He used to say, I'm not poor.
08:04Poor are those that can't eat every day.
08:07I eat every day.
08:08But I like to live this way in order to value those things that are important.
08:14If you let me a personal reference, my father was a political leader in Uruguay at the time of the Tupamaros.
08:29And one day, Mujica told me, you know what's your problem, mine?
08:36What's your problem is, he told me.
08:39That all the tragic moments of your life you had to share with your father.
08:44And you know what my problem is, he said.
08:47And turn his head, look at my eyes and said that I didn't have a son with whom I could share the tragic moments of my life.
08:58That was Pepe Mujica.
09:00Emotion, as he used to say, con razón y corazón. Emotion and rationality.
09:08That was Pepe Mujica.
09:11And I tell you, this country will miss him forever.
09:17In your words, Juan, to wrap up, how would you define how will the people of Uruguay remember Pepe Mujica?
09:24What legacy does he leave for the Uruguayan people and from everyone in Latin America?
09:30Well, in an optimistic way, I would say we will always miss him and his example will be present there the entire time, the whole time.
09:45But in a realistic manner, I have to admit that no things will be the same in the future.
09:53And we have to think a lot about it.
09:56We, my generation, which was not, I'm 72, Pepe was 90.
10:04Well, but my generation has to understand we have to give our space to the young people so that they can follow his example that they witnessed and they lived with.
10:19I don't know if you know Luis Alberto, but in a few weeks I will be leaving for the Vatican, where I'll be serving as Uruguayan ambassador.
10:33And this was possible for two close friends that have already died in the past few weeks.
10:42Pope Francis, whom I know for the past, I knew for the past 50 years.
10:49And Pepe Mujica, who was the one who suggested our new government to appoint me there.
10:56So it's very difficult for me to be objective, but I think Uruguay will really feel his absence.
11:05And we have to prepare ourselves to fill the emptiness that he leaves with pasión, razón y corazón, as he used to say.
11:20Passion, rationality, and heart.
11:24And that way we will, Uruguayans should meet once again as we all met around Pepe Mujica.
11:32And as we are meeting today, it's incredible the amount, the incredible crowd in front of the Legislative Palace to pay the last farewell to Pepe.
11:45Thank you, Juan, for your time and your input here with us from the South.
11:50Thank you very much Luis Alberto, and God help Pepe.
11:57Well, like this we have come to the end of these brief headlines.
12:00We'll have more in upcoming news briefs.
12:02Dear Digital эффilts.
12:05I'll see you soon.
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