Former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica, 89, revealed that the esophageal cancer he suffers from spread to his liver and said that the advance of the disease cannot be stopped, in statements to the local weekly Busqueda.
“The cancer in the esophagus is colonizing my liver. I don’t stop it with anything. Because? Because I am an old man and because I have two chronic illnesses. “I don’t have room for biochemical treatment or surgery because my body can’t handle it,” Mujica declared in an interview conducted on Tuesday and published this Thursday.
“What I ask is that you leave me alone. Don’t ask me for more interviews or anything else. My cycle is over. Honestly, I’m dying. The warrior has the right to his rest,” he said.
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Former guerrilla, president from 2010 to 2015 and one of the most emblematic figures of the left in Latin America, Mujica was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in May 2024.
The former president said that he is doing the necessary procedures to be buried in the garden of his humble house, in Cerro de Montevideo, along with his dog Manuela, under a tree that he himself planted.
“I’m going to die here. There’s a big sequoia out there. Manuela is buried there. I’m doing the paperwork so they can bury me there too. And that’s it.”
Mujica’s retirement
Despite the illness, in recent months Mujica remained active in the presidential campaign, which his leader from the Frente Amplio, Yamandú Orsi, won, and giving interviews to the press.
At the beginning of December, he received the leftist presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who decorated him with the main distinctions of their respective countries.
“What I want is to say goodbye to my compatriots. It is easy to have respect for those who think like you, but you have to learn that the foundation of democracy is respect for those who think differently. Therefore, the first category are my compatriots and I say goodbye to them. “I give you all a hug,” said Mujica.
Married to his fellow militant, former vice president and former senator Lucía Topolansky, Mujica spent 13 years imprisoned in inhumane conditions, most of it during the military dictatorship.
With Agency information.
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