We are made to fight to live, even when we are born condemned to die
No fim de sua vida, José Mujica — ex-guerrilheiro, ex-presidiário e ex-presidente do Uruguai — escolheu a franqueza como legado. Em uma entrevista gravada em julho de 2024, aos 89 anos e com um câncer terminal que já não pretendia tratar, Mujica chamou Vladimir Putin de palavrão e afirmou que a guerra na Ucrânia poderia ter sido evitada. Há uma longa tradição humana de homens que, diante da morte, abandonam a diplomacia e falam o que sempre souberam — e Mujica, que conheceu a violência do poder por dentro, parece ter decidido que esse era o momento.
- Aos 89 anos e com câncer no esôfago metastizado para o fígado, Mujica recusou novos tratamentos e passou a falar sem filtros sobre os conflitos que ainda o perturbam.
- Em julho de 2024, ele chamou Putin de 'filho da puta' em uma entrevista para a televisão espanhola — palavras gravadas meses antes de virem a público, carregadas pela autoridade de quem sobreviveu à ditadura e à tortura.
- A entrevista permaneceu discreta até janeiro de 2025, quando a notícia da piora de seu estado de saúde fez circular os trechos nas redes sociais, dando nova urgência às suas declarações.
- Mujica argumentou que a guerra entre Rússia e Ucrânia não era inevitável — uma afirmação que, vinda de um homem que conheceu a violência por dentro, soa menos como análise geopolítica e mais como acusação moral.
- Sem cálculo político ou ambição de carreira, ele fala como alguém que reconhece os padrões do autoritarismo e sente a obrigação de nomeá-los antes de partir.
José Mujica estava em sua chácara nos arredores de Montevidéu quando o jornalista Évole o visitou, em julho de 2024. Ele acabara de concluir um ciclo de radioterapia contra o câncer no esôfago diagnosticado em abril. Mesmo assim, recebeu a câmera com a mesma disposição de sempre — e, quando perguntado sobre Vladimir Putin, não hesitou. Chamou-o de filho da puta. A frase não foi dita por impulso: veio de um homem que havia visto a violência do poder de perto, que fora preso e torturado durante a ditadura uruguaia, que lutara como guerrilheiro e que, décadas depois, governara seu país.
Sobre a morte, Mujica foi igualmente direto. Disse que não a tratava como visita importante — quando chegasse, chegaria. Continuava fazendo planos porque amanhã poderia acordar morto, e tudo bem. Somos todos condenados a morrer, refletiu, mas feitos para lutar para viver.
A entrevista ficou em segundo plano até janeiro de 2025, quando Mujica revelou que o câncer havia se espalhado para o fígado e que decidira abandonar o tratamento. Foi então que os trechos sobre Putin ganharam circulação nas redes sociais — e um peso diferente. Ele não falava mais como político em exercício, nem como alguém com algo a ganhar. Falava como quem já fez as pazes com a própria finitude e escolheu usar o tempo que resta para dizer o que acredita ser verdade: que a guerra na Ucrânia era evitável, e que o homem responsável por ela merecia ser chamado pelo nome que Mujica lhe deu.
José Mujica, the 89-year-old former president of Uruguay, sat in his rural home outside Montevidéu last July and spoke with unsparing directness about Vladimir Putin. When asked how he would respond to the Russian leader, Mujica did not hedge. He called Putin a son of a bitch. The remark came during an interview for the Spanish television program "Lo de Évole," recorded months before the conversation would be made public, and it carried the weight of a man who had already lived through dictatorship, guerrilla warfare, and decades of political struggle.
At the time of the interview, Mujica was recovering from radiation therapy. He had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in April 2024 and had just completed treatment when the journalist Évole visited his property in the countryside near Montevidéu. The former guerrilla fighter, now in his final years, spoke openly about his condition. When Évole asked if he thought often about death, Mujica's answer was characteristically philosophical. He said he did not concern himself with death as an important visitor—when it came, it came. He would simply ask for another turn around the track. He continued to make plans, he said, because tomorrow he might wake up dead, and that was fine. We are all born condemned to die, he reflected, but we are made to fight to live.
Beyond his personal circumstances, Mujica used the platform to make a broader political statement. He argued that the war between Russia and Ukraine was not inevitable—that it could have been avoided. His criticism of Putin was not abstract. It was personal, visceral, the kind of language a man who had seen violence up close might use when confronting what he saw as needless aggression. The interview remained largely private until early January 2025, when Mujica revealed that his cancer had spread to his liver and that he had decided to refuse further medical treatment. Only then did clips from the July conversation surface on social media, giving his words about Putin new urgency and resonance.
Mujica's willingness to speak so bluntly about the Russian president and the Ukraine conflict reflects a particular kind of authority—that of an elder statesman who has nothing left to lose and everything to say. He had lived through Uruguay's military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, had been imprisoned and tortured, had fought in a guerrilla movement, and had eventually become president. He had seen what authoritarianism looked like from the inside. His condemnation of Putin was not the measured language of diplomacy but the plain speech of someone who recognized the patterns of power and violence.
The timing of the interview's release, coming as Mujica faced his own mortality, gave it an added dimension. He was not speaking from a position of political calculation or career advancement. He was speaking as a man who had decided to stop fighting his illness, who had made peace with his approaching death, and who seemed determined to use whatever platform remained to him to speak clearly about the world he was leaving behind. His remarks about Putin, crude as they were, carried the force of conviction—the conviction of someone who believed the war in Ukraine was a choice, not a necessity, and that the man who made that choice deserved to be called what Mujica believed him to be.
Citas Notables
Putin is a son of a bitch— José Mujica, on Vladimir Putin
We are born condemned to die, but we are made to fight to live— José Mujica, on his philosophy of mortality
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did Mujica feel compelled to speak so harshly about Putin in that moment, when he was dealing with his own health crisis?
Because he was past the point of diplomatic language. He'd seen authoritarianism destroy his own country. He recognized the pattern.
But he also said the war could have been avoided. What did he mean by that?
That it was a choice—Putin's choice. Not inevitable, not forced by circumstance. A decision made by one man that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Do you think his illness changed how he spoke?
It freed him. When you've decided not to fight anymore, you stop performing for anyone. You just say what you actually think.
The interview was from July, but it only became public after he announced the cancer had spread. Why does that timing matter?
Because it reframes everything. He wasn't speaking as a politician trying to influence policy. He was speaking as a dying man settling accounts with history.
What does his refusal of further treatment tell us?
That he'd made a calculation about quality over quantity. He wanted to live the time he had left on his own terms, not in a hospital bed.