Former Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica (2010–2015), unexpectedly summoned by his wife, former Vice President Lucia Topolanski, reappeared in public at the closing ceremony of his political sector’s election campaign with the message: “We must work for hope.”

Towards the end of an event of the Popular Participation Movement (MPM), a sector of the left-wing coalition of the Front Amplio (FA), at which Topolanski was scheduled to speak, and before FA presidential candidate Yamandu gave a speech to Orsi, the former senator surprised with a surprise performance.

Speaking about how Mujica’s fragile health prevented him from campaigning for the October 27 elections, Topolansky said he sometimes came up with “crazy ideas,” such as organizing a “giant bicycle platoon” that would add workers , young people, scientists and “veterans” gathered in a “huge mass.”

“But this idea couldn’t happen because we didn’t have enough cyclist, and we started waiting and kept waiting,” he said, before inviting Orsi and announcing with him: “You know what? The last cyclist has arrived, and here he is, here he is,” alluding to former President Mujica.

“For the first time in 40 years I was not on the campaign trail while the others were there, and I am doing this because I am fighting death, at the end of the game, absolutely convinced and conscious, but I had to come here today, so they symbolize “, Mujica explained.

“I am an old man who is very close to retreating from where he will not return, but I am happy because you are, because when my hands are gone, thousands of hands will replace the struggle, and all my life I have said, that the best leaders are those who go above and beyond the bar,” he added.

Thus, noting that today he is alive thanks to his “partner” and “another woman” who is his doctor, he insisted that the “fight” to which, according to him, he dedicated his life, accompanied by Topolansky, “ continues.” and speculated that new generations would “experience changes in the world that humanity has never known.”

“Intelligence will be as important as capital, which means that higher education will prevail (…) That is why we must fight for development in order to have economic means that can be invested in the heads of those who come,” he pointed out.

It is “the biggest problem the country faces,” said the former governor, who is off the campaign trail due to radiation treatment for cancer and subsequent hospitalization to treat its digestive effects.

To deal with this problem, he noted, “it is necessary to talk to the whole country, and not lock the executive power in itself” and force the political forces to agree on “four or five national issues to combat it.”

“No hatred, no confrontation. We must work for hope,” he concluded, before adding: “I must thank life, because when these weapons are gone, thousands of guns will appear. Thank you for being here. See you forever.” EFE