Cardinal Daniel Sturla, Archbishop of Montevideo and Primado de Uruguay, expressed his condolences for the death of the Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica, which occurred on May 13 at his 89 years, because of a terminal cancer.
May 12, in statements To Radio Sarandí, Lucía Topolansky, today Mujica’s widow, reported that the former president was in “a terminal situation” and that he was “with palliative care. At this stage, they are trying to be without pain, that he can sleep and not have anxiety.”
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Through its social networks This May 13, Cardinal Sturla, who in recent weeks is in Rome for the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, recalled that “being president of the Pepe Mujica Republic he was present in the cathedral when I began as Archbishop of Montevideo”, at the beginning of 2014.
“I’m sorry to be in Rome and not be able to accompany and say goodbye,” he added, expressing “a greeting to Lucia and his teammates.”
“I entrust to God. ‘That the perpetual light shines for him,” concluded the purple.
Mujica, from the extreme left guerrilla to the president of Uruguay
José Alberto Mujica Cordano, born on May 20, 1935 in Montevideo, was a guerrilla of the extreme leftist group National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros. He was in prison but eventually benefited from an amnesty in 1985.
He then entered politics, first occupying a position as a deputy and later becoming a senator.
He won the presidential elections in 2009 and exercised the presidency of Uruguay between 2010 and 2015, after which he remained as senator until 2020.
Known for its simplicity – which became especially evident in the use of an old Volkswagen Beetle (known as “Fusca”, “Beetle” or “Vocho”) and to avoid living in the presidential house -, its militancy of the left did not prevent him from criticizing the Latin American left -wing dictatorships.
In the case of Cuba, he said, “more than 60 years ago he defined the dictatorship of the proletariat and the single party,” something that “does not work, but defined it.”
“What bursts me is when they play democracy and make elections. And, according to the result, altero, I make fraud (…) or one thing, or the other,” The country told the Uruguayan newspaper In 2024. “I mean Venezuela, Nicaragua and any other country to do that,” he said.
The harsh criticism of the Catholic Church to Mujica’s policies
His five years at the head of the Uruguay government were also marked by policies contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church and the defense of life and family, promulgating the abortion law, that of “equal marriage”, facilitating artificial fertilization and legalizing the production and consumption of marijuana under state control.
These four policies earned him hard criticism of the Church in the country, and the then president of the Family and Life Commission of the Uruguayan Episcopal Conference, Mons. Jaime Fuentes, described them in 2014 as “four steps towards the abyss.”
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.