A former guerrilla leader jailed by Uruguay’s 1973-1985 military junta is seen likely to be elected president in polling starting on the weekend.
If Jose Mujica, 74, does indeed triumph, analysts believe he would continue left-wing economic policies introduced by outgoing Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, who is ending his single allowed five-year term on a wave of popularity.
Surveys put the rotund, scruffy and gray-haired Mujica — better known in his country of 3.3 million inhabitants by the nickname “Pepe” — well ahead of his rivals.
PHOTO: REUTERS
They include former president Luis Lacalle, who is the main figure in the conservative opposition, and Pedro Bordaberry, son of the country’s 1973-1975 dictator.
Voting intentions, however, suggest Mujica might not pass the threshold needed to be declared the outright winner on Sunday. In that case, a run-off between the top candidates will be held on Nov. 29.
Alongside the presidential balloting on Sunday will be a referendum on whether the country should drop an amnesty against military and police personnel accused of crimes during the junta.
On Monday, however, the country’s supreme court ruled the amnesty was unconstitutional in the case of a young Communist activist who was allegedly tortured and killed in 1974.
Expectations that the same finding could be applied to other similar cases has opened the prospect of public opinion squaring behind the referendum to definitively overturn the amnesty and turn the spotlight on the fate of 231 people who disappeared under the junta.
For Mujica, ascending to the presidency would be vindication for the wrongs he suffered under Uruguay’s brutal regime. As one of the founders of the Tupamaros urban rebel movement, Mujica suffered being shot nine times, as well as incarceration in 1970 by the country’s then-democratic authorities as they set about largely crushing his group.
After twice escaping jail and being recaptured, he ended up behind bars and enduring long periods of solitary confinement as one of the prisoners of the military dictatorship installed in 1973. It was only when democracy returned in 1985 that he was freed.
Pre-election surveys credit Mujica with 44 percent of the vote, Lacalle with 30 percent and Bordaberry with 12 percent.
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