Former Uruguayan President José ‘Pepe’ Mujica reappeared on Tuesday at an event of his political party, where he said that it was “a tough day” because he is “rebuilding” his bones, after having been hospitalized for a day as part of his treatment for the malignant tumor that was detected in his esophagus.
“Today has been a tough day for me. I am trying to get back on my feet as best I can, but I had to be here,” the former Uruguayan president from 2010 to 2015 began. In his speech he insisted, as on previous occasions, that “politics is not a business.” “It is a passion that you either have or you don’t. We are not here for what we are going to win. We are here because we are convinced,” he added.
“I am aware that I belong to a generation that is leaving behind,” he acknowledged, “but the struggle continues and it must survive.” “I have been a militant since I was 14 years old and I am in my 90s, I am scraping by, but, to everyone: to succeed in life is to get up and start over every time you fall. There is no definitive triumph because there is no definitive defeat if you keep a strong heart,” he concluded to applause.
The former president participated in the event in which the inclusion of journalist Blanca Rodríguez to the list for the Senate of the Popular Participation Movement, a space that Mujica leads within the Broad Front (FA, left), was announced, in view of the October elections. Mujica praised Rodríguez’s skills, which, he said, “will serve to enrich the Senate (…) with her refined and neat language, with her authentic feminism.”
Mujica underwent radiotherapy, which caused some symptoms that he is still “overcoming,” according to his doctor, but his progress with respect to the tumor is “very good.” The difficulties in eating caused by the radiotherapy treatment he received due to a malignant tumor in the esophagus worsened Mujica’s kidney function, and he left the hospital where he was hospitalized on Tuesday afternoon for tests.
