URUGUAY-MUJICA/INTERVIEW Uruguay's Mujica covers a wide range of topics during exclusive interview with Reuters

Record ID: 351743

  • Title: URUGUAY-MUJICA/INTERVIEW Uruguay's Mujica covers a wide range of topics during exclusive interview with Reuters
  • Date: 25th February 2015
  • Summary: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (FEBRUARY 25, 2015) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF URUGUAYAN PRESIDENT JOSE MUJICA IN HIS GARDEN WITH REUTERS JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JOSE MUJICA, OUTGOING PRESIDENT OF URUGUAY, SAYING: "Naturally, just like any business, they will seek to expand and for this reason we need to regulate it and we aren't going to permit that they sell more and more."
  • Embargoed: 12th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uruguay
  • Country: Uruguay
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAE32TSS3YA8DICKMFP6D8821YY
  • Story Text: Outgoing Uruguayan president, Jose Mujica, sat down to talk to Reuters from his garden on the outskirts of Montevideo on Wednesday (February 25).
    The former leftist guerrilla, known around the world for his folksy demeanor and groundbreaking initiatives such as the cultivation and sale of marijuana, will hand over the presidency to his successor, Tabare Vazquez, on Sunday (March 1).
    Mujica has become a symbol of modest living and spurned the presidential palace throughout his term in office to continue living in his ramshackle farmhouse.
    The 79-year-old spoke to Reuters about the country's decision to become the world's first to permit the cultivation, distribution and use of marijuana.
    He said that like any business, the marijuana sector would have to be regulated.
    "Naturally, just like any business, they will seek to expand and for this reason we need to regulate it and we aren't going to permit that they sell more and more," said Mujica.
    The plan to legalize marijuana aims to wrest control of the trade from drug gangs.
    "Where it is sold is absolutely secondary, but it needs to be sold in a safe place," he said.
    Mujica said that secure sale locations wouldn't be a problem, but that price and quality were important aspects to consider.
    "That will not be the obstacle, the obstacle will be in the price relations, that it gets to the consumer at an acceptable price and good quality. Producers will try to earn more money, just like any business. But we are going to give them land and a number of advantages because it won't be produced just anywhere," said the outgoing president.
    Accompanied by his dog, Manuela, the man who was jailed for 14 years for his activities with a leftist group known as the Tupamaros, spoke about his government's decision to accept six former Guantanamo Bay prisoners for resettlement.
    "These are people who have been destroyed, they destroyed them. Why? Because they were very young. They seized some of them from their beds, they took them and - until today with their tradition and culture. If they had taken them when they were older they would have had a greater capacity for resistance but they took them in a young stage of life and killed them, they killed by keeping them in isolation. They are people who need to recover, I don't know if they will be able to recover. We will soon receive international support that will allow for period of funding. There is one prisoner [former prisoner] who has a passport and who has asked us if he can leave and we are processing this at the embassy of the Arab country that will receive him," he said.
    The men - four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian - were flown to Uruguay in December.
    When asked about the political upheaval in Venezuela regarding opposition protests against Nicolas Maduro's administration, the former agriculture minister said he thought the best solution was to comply with the country's constitution.
    "What worries me in Venezuela is whether or not they follow the Constitution because the Venezuelan Constitution is what creates a solution: there is a recall plebiscite and they have elections soon but I realize that there is a sector that wants the government to fall now and there is an opposition sector that wants the process to be followed. I think the most logical thing is that they find a constitutional solution and I think that everyone should work for this because the other way seems to be a political maneuver," said Mujica.
    When questioned about neighbouring Argentina and Brazil, Mujica said that both countries have a huge role to play when it comes to regional integration and the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur.
    "Argentina has an enormous responsibility in this America. Moreover, in America (Latin America) we integrate if Argentina and Brazil want to and pay for the dinner and if not, we are all in trouble. I think Argentina should worry about its internal problems but also for the neighbourhood [neighbouring countries]. It can't treat the neighbourhood like it treats the rest of the world," he said.
    Mujica, who is known by many Uruguayan's simply by his nickname, 'Pepe', was elected for a five-year term in 2009 and was constitutionally barred from running for a second consecutive term.
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