Auction of Don Pepe Batlle’s credential by @JMaSanguinetti.@PartidoColorado pic.twitter.com/BlS9a6oSm8
– Batllistas (@Batllistas_uy) October 15, 2022
The former president of the Republic, Julio María Sanguinetti, participated this Saturday in an auction in which the leader of the Colorado Party, José Batlle y Ordoñez, bought two documents, which he plans to donate to the House of said political organization.
The first document is the identity card for which he paid US$4,200, and the other is the credential that cost him US$6,000.
The former president also bid for an 18-carat pocket watch that also belonged to Batlle y Ordoñez, raising his maximum to $5,100, but someone else managed to win it for $6,000.
Between October 14 and 15, more than 50 lots with objects that belonged to the Colorado leader who was President of the Republic between March 1, 1911 and March 1, 1915 were auctioned. example, 13 bronze and silver medals commemorating various historical events that were in the possession of Batlle.
I was planning to pay less
Sanguinetti clarified to the press that he did not put up the money by himself, but that he received help from “a group of friends”. “It was minced, there were many offers, many online offers, which are now mysterious, one does not know who is on the other side,” she commented at a press conference when leaving the auction.
“But in any case, for us it is very important, very emblematic, (to obtain) Don Pepe’s identity card and credential. I think that not only for us Colorados and Batllistas, but for the entire country, it means a lot, because he is a very relevant figure in the democratic history of the country,” he said.
Asked if it came with a limit on what he could spend, he replied: “We came to play it. Now this group of friends will widen a bit and we will donate to the Party. I thought I was going to go out less, honestly. Because the estimate was lower; but it was what it was. In any case, I think it is also good and gratifying that there are many people who want to have Don Pepe’s documents”.
For Sanguinetti, the credential is of particular symbolism because “one imagines Don Pepe voting, presenting the credential at a table, it means many things.”
