José Mujica announces he is dying: "I am condemned"

José Mujica announced that he is dying. The former president of Uruguay said he will not undergo any more treatment to try to cure a tumor in his esophagus that has spread to vital organs in his body, such as his liver.

"The cancer in my esophagus is colonizing my liver. I can't stop it with anything. Why? Because I am an old man and because I have two chronic diseases. There is no room for biochemical treatment or surgery because my body can't take it," said Mujica, 89, in an interview with the Uruguayan magazine Búsqueda.

The former president asked the doctors not to make him suffer. "Let them put me to death and when it's my turn to die, I'll die. That's how simple I tell them. I'm doomed, brother. This is as far as I've come," he added.

Mujica said that this will be the last interview and the last public statement he will give: "What I ask is that they leave me alone. That they don't ask me for any more interviews or anything else. My cycle is over. Honestly, I am dying. And the warrior has the right to his rest."

In April 2024, Mujica was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He underwent more than 30 radiation sessions which seemed to cure him but he recently relapsed.

Mujica was president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015.