Uruguay, as did most of South America, just had a
presidential election.
Their campaigns
don’t take two years and don’t cost billions of dollars for the
candidates.
The process is quick and
features much less negative advertising and partisan politics.
The former president Tabare Vasquez defeated
the incumbent candidate Jose Mujica.
Tabare Vasquez is a professional politician.
What he lacks in charisma is compensated for by
his acknowledged political and bureaucratic skills.
He was well known to the electorate from his
previous terms as President.
Jose Mujica may not have been a very good president
in the political sense, but he was probably the most colorful character to lead
any country in a long time. During his
term in office Uruguay legalized marijuana and abortion. He spoke against corporate and government
abuses of power and spoke for the poor and impoverished members of
society. He offered asylum to several
former Guantanamo detainees. He gave a
speech to the United Nations where he said, among other things, “We have sacrificed the old immaterial gods
and now we are occupying the temple of the market god,” and “This god organizes
our economy, our politics, our habits, our lives. It seems we have been born
only to consume.”
And “There’s marketing for
everything! There’s marketing for cemeteries, for funeral services, for
maternity wards, for fathers, for mothers, grandparents and uncles! ...
Everything is business! ... The average man of our time wanders between
financial institutions and the tedious routine of offices ... He dreams of
vacations and freedom. He dreams of being able to pay his bills, until one day,
his heart stops.”
Before
becoming president in 2009, Mujica had spent more than 10 years imprisoned in
solitary confinement in a well! He was a
revolutionary Tucamaro during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and early
1980s.
Another
quote from Mujica, “You don’t
stop being a common man just because you are president.” He drove a VW beetle and commuted from his
home to the office as president; 90% of his salary went to charity.
I met
President Mujica a couple of times, once at a reception celebrating the opening
of a new pharmaceutical company in Montevideo.
No Secret Service, no bodyguards, no police, no soldiers. No entourage.
He was just another visitor at the event. He spoke to me in rapid Spanish about the new
jobs being created by the company for working men and women. He didn’t seem to care whether I was a voter
or a tourist. His enthusiasm and charisma
were evident in everything he said and did.
But that’s not enough in today’s complex world. Uruguay’s economy, like almost all the South
American countries in their region, is taking a big economic hit. Not as big a hit as its neighbor Argentina,
but still a hit. Former President
Mujica’s policies have taken the blame, and he’s now a former president. His style and personality will be missed on
the world stage and in his home country.
