We should strive to improve democracy rather than bury it, Mujica says

Former Uruguay president, now Senator José Pepe Mujica advocated improving democracy rather than supporting coups d'État in Latin America during a lecture at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) late on Thursday (Aug. 27).

At age 80, Mujica was wildly cheered by a mostly young crowd. His speech, which is markedly against capitalist materialism and in favor of human solidarity, was interspersed with moments of complete silence and enthusiastic applause. Amid cries of “There'll be no coup” from the crowd, he made a heated defense of democracy.

“I find it hard to understand what's going on here and don't want to interfere as an outsider. But I'm going to be clear here—venturing on military uniforms, come on! [Supporting a] coup, come on! We've been through this over and over again in Latin America. This isn't a perfect democracy just as well as people are not perfect. We should be standing up for democracy to improve it rather than bury it,” Mujica said to be greeted with more cries of “There'll be no coup.”

His talk was originally slated to take place at the UERJ theater, but it moved to an outdoor amphitheater and was screened live to other areas on campus to accommodate the entire audience.Mujica called on young people to get involved in political activism and emphasized the need for solidarity with each other.

“Dear people, nobody's better than others. I have your youth to thank for [bringing up] memories of so many students who have fallen down along the way in our Latin America. You must take over holding up the flag. We should all be fighting for freedom. It's something you can't buy, you have to earn it—by doing something for others. This is what solidarity really is about. And there can be no civilization without solidarity.”

As the audience raised the question of the legalization of marijuana use in Uruguay, a law passed under his government, Mujica said love is the only good addiction and explained the reasons for taking this step in his country.

“If you want to change something, you're not going to keep doing all the same things. We made a decision in my country. If we can't beat drug trafficking—one out of every three arrests is over drugs, whether it's smuggling or any other offense committed to get the money to buy drugs—we decided to take over the market. That isn't legalization, it's regulation,” he said. “We don't believe that any addictions are good other than love, all the others are harmful. But even when people become addicted, we can [now] come in and help them before it's too late because we can identify them. If they do this in hiding, they'll be getting hopelessly more and more addicted,” he went on.

Mujica's visit to Brazil was arranged by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of South America (FEDERASUR), which honored him at an event at the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) office. Mujica was president of Uruguay in the period 2010–2015. A member of the leftist anti-dictatorship group Tupamaro, he was a political prisoner for 14 years.

Translated by Mayra Borges