After the bilateral meeting with his Uruguayan counterpart, the new president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with the former president of Uruguay José “Pepe” Mujica, with whom he has a close relationship from the moment in which they shared the presidencies of the countries neighbors and with his wife and former vice president Lucía Topolansky. There, the former president criticized the promotion of a common currency, although he stressed that it is important to create one in the future, and asked to start by respecting the purchase and sale agreement with local money. “Right away we go to the great thing, we want a central bank,” said Mujica.
According to the Uruguayan newspaper The Observer Y The countryMujica recalled that with Argentina there is “an agreement to be able to buy and sell with our money.” However, “we did not comply with this agreement,” Mujica remarked, at the same time as he assured that it is easier to start marketing in local currencies than “to make a currency.”
“Right away we go to the great thing, we want a central bank. A central bank for America”, emphasized Mujica. And he explained: “We have to do many stages, many things. We need a name, a flag, an anthem. Why? Because humans are mythological, we have to symbolize ideas. We have to do things for humans, not for the economists”, added the former president, who unleashed laughter among those present.
Within the video it can be seen that Lucía Topolansky, Mujica’s wife and former vice president, also participated in the meeting; Marcelo Abdala, president of the Inter-Union Plenary of Workers-National Workers Convention (Pit-Cnt), and the mayor of Canelones, Yamandú Orsi.
The Brazilian delegation included Rosângela “Janja” da Silva, Lula’s wife, Economy Minister Fernando Haddad, and the president’s special adviser for international issues, Celso Amorim.
