Mercadante pays tribute to Mujica and extols his legacy: "political civility that is far above the divisions that separate us"

247 - In a thrilling article published in the newspaper The GlobeAloizio Mercadante, president of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), paid tribute to the former president of Uruguay, José "Pepe" Mujica, highlighting his life trajectory, his lessons in humanity, and his ability to inspire generations. Mercadante describes Mujica as a man who transcends political and social divisions, a leader whose simplicity and commitment to life make him a unique figure on the world stage.

"If he could, Mujica would put us all in his little blue Volkswagen Beetle and drive us to a much better place. A magical place, which is inside his heart," wrote Mercadante, highlighting the simplicity that defines the former president's life. For him, Mujica's story is a timeless inspiration, marked by choices that reinforce the essence of public service as a mission, and not a path to personal enrichment.

The trajectory of the Uruguayan leader is inseparable from his experience as a political prisoner during the military dictatorship, when he spent 14 years incarcerated, much of it in solitary confinement. "We learned in the orphanhood of the dungeons that you can be happy with little, and if you can't achieve it with that, you can't achieve it with anything," Mujica recounted, in one of the many reflections cited by Mercadante.

The pursuit of material wealth as an illusory path to happiness was one of the lessons Mujica learned from his experience in Uruguayan prisons. "I am not poor, I am sober, I have light baggage, I live with enough so that things do not steal my freedom," he said, exemplifying his worldview based on autonomy and resistance to the temptations of power.

Another fundamental teaching of Mujica, highlighted by Mercadante, is his relationship with life in all its forms. Deprived of human interaction in prison, he found in small creatures his only link to existence. "In prison, we liked spiders, we liked ants, because they were the only living beings we had, in the solitude of our dungeons," stated the former Uruguayan president. This connection with the natural world is reflected to this day in his passion for cultivating flowers, a craft he learned from his mother and which has become a symbol of his approach to politics: "Politics is the greatest art of caring for life."

The rejection of hatred is also a pillar of his philosophy. Mujica, who could have left prison harboring resentment towards his tormentors, preferred to sow love. "I haven't cultivated hatred in my garden for decades. Hatred ends up making us stupid because it makes us lose objectivity in the face of things. Hatred is blind like love, but love is creative, and hatred destroys us," he reflected.

For Mercadante, these lessons are immortal, and make Mujica one of the great statesmen of our time, alongside names like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The president of BNDES emphasizes that Mujica's austerity was never a political marketing ploy, but rather an authentic expression of his commitment to life and humanity.

In concluding his tribute, Mercadante extols Mujica's simplicity and greatness: "Mujica is leaving the life he loves so much, the life he cares for so much. But he will never truly die. Like in Francisco de Quevedo's fantastic poem, he will be ashes, but ashes with meaning, and he will become dust, but passionate dust. On that day, all the flowers in the world will bloom in his honor."