Confusion in the Uruguayan Senate: they make a minute of silence for a former legislator who did not die

The Uruguayan Senate stopped its agenda to pay tribute to a former Frente Amplio legislator after learning of her death.

However, while the senators remembered the leader with emotion, they realized it was fake news.

The new legislative period in the Senate of Uruguay began with an uncomfortable episode.

While the legislators were discussing solutions for the rural sector, strongly affected by the drought, Vice President Beatriz Argimón interrupted the session on Tuesday, March 7, to announce the death of former senator Ivonne Passada after being warned by Senator Liliam Kechichian of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front).

Argimón recalled that Passada “had been suffering from an illness for some time” and highlighted her “trajectory” and her performance as a “true vocational of political activity”.

She was “a militant of her party, of her sector, an excellent companion who played an outstanding role at the level of the interparliamentary union and a militant for equality between men and women in Uruguayan society”, remarked the vice-president.

Then, the parliamentarians made a minute of silence and took the floor to remember the former senator.

Senator Germán Coutinho, speaking for the Colorado Party, lamented the “sad loss” and sent a “big hug and a lot of strength for this difficult moment” to her relatives.

Carlos Camy of the National Party and Guido Manini Ríos of Cabildo Abierto also expressed their condolences, highlighting Passada’s frontality and commitment with which she carried out her work.

But suddenly, the unexpected happened; the tributes were interrupted by the intervention of Kechichian, who took the floor to clarify the misunderstanding.

“We are in a crazy world,” said the senator adding, “networks communicate things that are not confirmed.”

“I regret it because Senator [Amanda] Della Ventura transmitted the news to me when they asked me we confirm it, and now it would seem that it is not so (…) The truth is that one cannot live at the pace of social networks,” she asserted.

The senator then requested an impasse to talk with Passada’s family and regretted that false news was published in an attempt to “be the first to give bad news”.

According to the local press, Passada has been hospitalized since 2022 after several strokes. She is currently on life support for a severe health condition.

Passada was in Chamber between 2005 and 2015 and in Senate between 2015 and 2020, always representing the leftist coalition Frente Amplio.

The legislator was a member of the Movimiento de Participación Popular (MPP), a sector of the FA led by former president José Mujica.

With information from Sputnik