In March 2007, the then American president George Bush visited his counterpart Tabaré Vázquez in Montevideoand the Uruguayan president had highlighted the coincidences between both countries, and thanked the economic support in the 2002 crisis.
The following month, the former Tupamaro leader and former mayor for the Broad Front, Jorge Zabalza, who died this Wednesday at the age of 79, was invited to the program “De Igual a Igual” on Channel 4, conducted by the also deceased communicator Omar Gutierrezamong other issues for relations with the North American power.
A week before, Montevideo Portal recalled, a protester had been arrested for burning a US flag in a march in defense of Fernando Masseillot, who had been arrested for attack a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in the middle of Bush’s visit.
When the topic of the United States came up, Zabalza preferred to highlight Venezuelan politics, a country that “gave us 900 million dollars”. Gutierrez replied that The United States “in another time” also donated large amounts of money to the country.
Then, Zabalza took a small United States flag out of his pocket and set it on fire. “Well, we march in cana”Gutiérrez said, and Zabalza replied “the one who marches in cana is me”.
Zabalza grabbed a weed that the program was giving away and threw the flag to the ground, and He began to step on it together with Gutiérrez in fear of a possible fire.
In an interview with El Observador TV in June 2015, Omar Gutiérrez recalled that fact and the “scare” they had, since the burning of the flag was two weeks after a fire at the Canal 4 plant.
The historic television and radio host explained that Zabalza he was walking “with the lighter in his hand” that dayand he, who at that time was a smoker, He thought that the former Front Amplista leader smoked. Gutiérrez said that he was talking about his jacket, when out of nowhere he took out the flag and burned it.
“If he had told me, before starting the talk, ‘look Omar, I have a flag here and I’m going to set it on fire at any moment,’ I would have told him ‘no crazy, no no, I don’t agree with that, Say what you want, talk what you want, but not that'”Gutierrez remarked.
After the program ended, the host, who died in 2018, added that Zabalza he stayed longer on the television set. When he went to ask him why he hadn’t left, Zabalza told him that when he left “there was a patrol car at the door”but Gutiérrez explained between laughs that it was not for him, but that he was going to the channel to bring information.
$150 million
The 2019 national election campaign was approaching the ballotage in November and the Broad Front, with Daniel Martínez as candidate, He went out to seek to reverse the numbers of a first round that left him behind the current government coalition, led by Luis Lacalle Pou.
in the middle of the campaign “Vote by Vote”Martínez visited the neighborhood of Santa Catalina, where Jorge Zabalza lived. When the candidate and the former mayor of the Front met, Zabalza told him: “I get up every morning and the first thing I see is that over there”pointing out the remains of the regasifier, In front of the river. Martinez replied “Yes, how beautiful!”to which the former tupamaro retorted “$150 million thrown away”.
The Frente Amplio candidate tried to amend the moment, filmed by the cameras, by saying that “You have to learn from successes and mistakes”but the anecdote remained as one of Martínez’s mistakes in the campaign.
