👋 Farewells in Uruguay and Bolivia

IN THIS ISSUE

• Latin America says goodbye to leftist icon José Mujica

• Bolivia’s embattled president gives up on re-election

How the life of José Mujica, dead at 89, explains Uruguay

José “Pepe” Mujica, Uruguay’s progressive president from 2010 to 2015, died on Tuesday at his farm in Rincón del Cerro, on the outskirts of Montevideo.

• Center-left President Yamandú Orsi thanked the late leader for his “deep love for his people.” Indeed, Mujica had a hand in Orsi’s 2024 election victory, with his endorsement crucial to get Orsi over the line and help their Broad Front coalition reclaim power after five years.

• Condolences for Mujica’s death poured in from across the globe and the political spectrum. A friend of the late president, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Mujica’s life showed “how political fight and kindness can go hand in hand.”

• Mujica had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in April last year.

👉 Why it matters. Mujica’s unpretentious style, both in politics and in life, resonated with the zeitgeist of South America’s smallest and most stable democracy. “I live like most of my people. In politics, my way of living should be normal,” he once said, in a phrase that came to define his persona as much as his presidency.

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