There are many political leaders who have served prison terms before attaining high office. The history of Latin American revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, who liberated the country through guerilla activity, often makes us laugh. But after 12 long years of hellish solitary confinement and severe tortures, the incredible life story of Pepe aka Jose Alberto Mujica Cordano, who came to the head of the Latin American country of Uruguay.
He served as Uruguay’s 40th president from 2010 to 2015. His brutal torture and solitary confinement in various prisons rivaling Guantanamo are unparalleled in modern times. The world got to know more about that incredible life story when the movie ‘A Twelve Year Night’ directed by Alvaro Breschner was released in 2018. That film was also Uruguay’s Oscar entry that year, and the film also showed extraordinary artistry.
The film, which was a direct presentation of the life of a guerilla named Jose Alberto Mujica, took the world by storm. The vivid image of Latin American politics marked the finer aspects of people’s lives moving between dictatorship and democracy before the world.
The film tells the story of a revolutionary organization called Tupamaros, which was formed by a number of revolutionaries against the dictatorship in Uruguay in the mid-1960s. Taking energy from the July 26 movement led by Fidel Castro for the Cuban Revolution, Mujica and his team form a secret organization called Tupamaros. In 1969, he participated in the revolutionary action to seize Pando, a town near Montevideo.
He was a member of one of the six squads that attacked strategic points in the city. Mujica’s mob seizes the city’s telephone exchange, but he is later caught by the secret police and arrested in a bar. Mujica was shot while resisting arrest. The police officer who was shot by Mujika was killed. The doctor saved Mujeeka who was brought to the hospital with serious injuries through tireless efforts. The doctor was also said to be a member of the Tupamaros gang.
Jorge Pacheco Areco was the president of Uruguay at that time. He was a complete dictator. The president responded to the actions of the revolutionaries by canceling most of the constitutional rights.
Authorities have arrested Mujika four times. He escaped from prison every time. In September 1971, Karetas jailed him. Within a month, Mujica was recaptured. In April 1972, he once again escaped from Karetas prison. He was recaptured in 1972.
The following months saw a decisive change of power in the country. The country underwent a military coup. Mujica and eight other revolutionaries were imprisoned under strict surveillance. People’s opposition to military rule must be suppressed. Even the knowledge that the revolutionaries are alive and that they are surviving persecution will give people hope. The aim was to keep their survival a secret. A prison is designed to help break the health and willpower of its inmates.
It was life after that, from where 12 consecutive years of solitary confinement began. For two of these years, Mujika was at the base of a well used to water horses. A well where not even a ray of light penetrates. A political prisoner unable to see a single human being, unable to speak to anyone. He had many health problems at that time. Treatment was not even available in dreams.
Mental problems plagued him. Days and nights in a state of confusion. There were no days. Night. Dark only. Eluterio Fernandez Huidobro and Mauricio Rosenkopf of the Tupamaros gang, imprisoned with Mujica, were in adjacent cells. Without knowing each other. They find a new way to communicate by banging on the heavy walls of the dungeon. They recognize each other through those sound codes. It becomes an oasis in the moment between death and life.
The film visualizes prisoners overwhelmed with happiness. But Mujika cannot be brought into the way of conversation and communication. He is in a delusional world. Hallucinations. A frightening state of hallucinations, like a shattered brain with a hammer blow. Meanwhile there is a prison visit by the Red Cross. An opportunity for prisoners to complain about human rights violations, not even being allowed to go to the toilet.
Before the visit, the prison bed, sasera, stationery and books appear for one day only. The aim is to throw dust in the eyes of the inspectors. The short film ‘An Occurrence at Owlcreek Bridge’ is one of the all-time classics. Its protagonist is condemned to death and hangs on the gallows between life and death. The core of the film is the dream he sees in the meantime.
The rope tightens as soon as he feels like he’s coming back to life. The visit of the Red Cross creates a similar mood in Fernandez, the prisoner. Prisoner dreaming of judge taking action against human rights violations. Everything falls apart in an instant. After only asking for names, the prisoners are led out. Nothing happens. A dungeon set up for just one day becomes the same as before.
Days and years pass. One day, prison officials open the closed windows of the cell. yes What a light to light. Mujica’s fellow prisoners remain hopeful despite the brutal torture. The soldier in charge of the guard is able to befriend Kamini by giving him a trick to possess him. A politician who is also a poet cannot fail to give in to a love letter. A soldier who achieves romantic success allows certain privileges to the prisoners.
They are small, but they are big for those who are locked in the dark room. A piece of newspaper used as toilet paper gives some idea about the developments in the country. There are signs of some change in the country. A referendum on a new constitution that could lead to a total dictatorship fails. It angers the dictator and the military, but has no choice. A worsening economic crisis. Dictatorship cannot hold. Protests are intensifying.
1985 saw the dawn of democracy. Mujica and other political prisoners are being released soon. Writer-director Alvaro Breschner’s brilliant and mesmerizing film comes to fruition here.
But the second part of the life of revolutionaries begins here. There are busy political movements going on in the country. The golden age of democracy has been born. The Tupamaros join the broad left coalition. Tupamaros reorganized into a political party called the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP) for the 1989 elections. Mujika became one of the leading voices of the MPP. Meanwhile, he settles on a farm outside Montevideo with his longtime partner and former Tupamaros member Lucia Topolanski.
Active in politics, Mujica became a member of the Chamber of Representatives (1995-2000). Elected to the Senate in 2000. In 2004, the Progressive Encounter-Broad Front coalition won majorities in both assemblies. Their presidential candidate Tabare Vasquez wins the election. Mujica was sworn in as Senate leader in February 2005. He became Minister of Agriculture in Vázquez’s cabinet (2005–08). In 2010, José Pepe Mujica (Antonio de la Torre) became the 40th President of Uruguay.
His five-year presidency was eventful. Many important decisions were made at that time. The legalization of abortion and the legalization of same-sex marriage caused an uproar among conservatives. He also focused on improving relations with neighboring countries. He gave new dimensions to Latin American friendship by settling the river dispute with Argentina through compromises.
Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, was his closest ally against imperialism. The BBC described Mujica as the world’s poorest president. He never spent a single day in the President’s palace. The BBC reported that the president, who lives a normal life on his farm in the village, spends 90 percent of his salary on charity. He would have been elected president again. If Uruguayan law allows it. His popularity was so strong.