“I think she will not be a candidate because Cristina is Moody, but it is very smart“, affirmed the former president of Uruguay Jose “Pepe” Mujica, during an interview with “The Observer” when asked about how he saw the Argentine vice president facing the 2023 elections. It is not the first time that the Uruguayan refers to Cristina Kirchner, although this time, automatically known his wordsin the networks they remembered the audio that was leaked in 2013in which Mujica referred to the then Argentine president as a woman “stubborn” and “worse than the one-eyed man (Néstor Kirchner)”.
During the interview, Mujica also explained that Cristina “is aware of the support she has” but “she is also aware of the opposition she generates.” For the former president, the fact that Alberto Fernandez being the president of Argentina today is proof of Cristina’s skills as a strategist. “If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have gone looking for Fernández like she went looking for him,” she clarified.
Regarding the possibility that Alberto Fernández is a candidate for 2023, Mujica said that “he does not think so.” “Kirchnerism (Maximo Kirchner for example), I had already raised some questions,” commented the former president, and highlighted the climate of uncertainty in local politics. “It will be difficult in Argentina, it will be very difficult. I don’t know if the Argentine doesn’t get some from the interior, some federal one of those that he has scattered around. But I don’t know what will happen. Peronism is not predictable.”
“This old woman is worse than the one-eyed man.”
In 2013 Mujica gave a press conference in the Uruguayan city of Florida, which was broadcast live on the website of the Presidency of Uruguay. The then president was in dialogue with who he was the mayor of said city, Carlos Encisoabout the relationship between Argentina Y Brazil and certain economic conflicts that existed between the two countries at that time.
The conversation, which Mujica believed was only between him and Enciso, was recorded thanks to microphones that the former president thought were already off, and that caused everything he said to be broadcast live. “To get something from Argentina you have to lean back a bit from Brazil. It’s like the old law of the pendulum,” Mujica began by explaining, believing that no one was listening to him anymore than Enciso.
It was then that Mujica launched the controversial phrase: “this old woman is worse than the one-eyed man.” “Worse,” Enciso seconded. “The one-eyed guy was more political. This is stubborn,” Mujica said, adding: “A 77-year-old Argentine pope is going to explain what a mate and a thermos are?” This last comment from the Uruguayan politician refers to a fact that involves the Pope Francisco. Shortly after being appointed Supreme Pontiff, Cristina visited him and gave him a mate kit to congratulate him on his assumption. While Cristina was unwrapping the mate pieces, she was explaining what each item was.
After the “blooper”, Mujica declared to the Uruguayan media that “he did not realize that the microphones were open”. Regarding his statements about Cristina, Mujica maintained that “he was talking about Lula and Brazil” and that “he never publicly spoke about Argentina.” “To travel the world clarifying anything.” “Let them invent the balls they want,” Mujica sentenced at that time.
