Uruguay president backs ‘wonderful’ Suarez
Mujuca was speaking on the same day that Uruguay’s national team captain Diego Lugano also supported Suarez’s handshake snub towards Evra.
Lugano’s club Paris Saint-Germain was linked with a swoop for Suarez at the end of the season. French paper L’Equipe, used the headline ‘Paris reaches out to Suarez’ and claimed PSG had already made contact with Suarez’s representatives to discuss a move.
Suarez has since apologised for his behaviour but Mujica gave his thoughts in his regular public address on Montevideo radio station M24.
“Suarez is not a racist, he has never been a racist and he never will be a racist,” Mujica declared.
“He is a wonderful boy. And he has made Uruguayans happier. We love him because he was a poor kid. As a result, he has not had an academic education and he doesn’t know anything about diplomatic protocol. But he is great on the pitch and a kind of artist with the ball.
“He doesn’t deserve the media pressure for what he did. It’s important that he knows that we support him from Uruguay and from afar. I want to say it publicly, I want him to know that he has my solidarity. He has my total support as a president of Uruguay. The people in England have exaggerated.”
Lugano also backed his compatriot in his decision to snub Evra’s handshake.
“You have to have guts to do what Luis did against Manchester United and he has guts. He stuck to his convictions,” said Lugano.
“As far as I know, we live in a democracy, and we are not obliged to greet someone if we don’t want to — especially when that person has made you feel terrible recently.”
Lugano, who had insisted Suarez was innocent of any racism charge before the FA’s independent commission found him guilty and banned him for eight matches, wrote on his website: “We must understand that England is historically a colonial country and because of that, racism is a complicated theme there.
“But that’s nothing to do with Luis and the Manchester United player.
“What was said was between the players. There are many false moralists and hypocrites out there who tried to teach Luis a lesson, but in this case Luisito is the only innocent party.”
Suarez has kept a low profile since publicly apologising for snubbing Evra last Sunday, but is expected to keep his place in the Liverpool side that takes on Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup fifth round on Sunday.
Meanwhile Evra’s team-mate Fabio da Silva has claimed Suarez’s behaviour inspired the team to their 2-1 win.
“Before the match, we were calm, but after the incident with Suarez we were even more motivated,” he told Brazilian paper O Globo.
“Evra was insulted by Suarez but even so, he put his hand out to Suarez. What Suarez did was inexplicable.’’
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