The Peruvian writer and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, died this week at the age of 89. Among his various accomplishments and roles – author, philosopher, journalist and public figure – this literary luminary was an ardent supporter of Ukraine.
I had the pleasure of working with his son while I was with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and based in Geneva, and meeting the great writer himself when he visited Kyiv in 2014.
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Before that, and even before becoming a fan of his works – later my personal favorite was the non-political, sensual novel, Notebooks of Don Rigoberto – I had known him indirectly while heading the Soviet Union unit at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London from 1978 to 1982.
The Latin American writer, often controversial, was always politically active and opposed dictatorships in South America.
In 1976, Vargas Llosa was elected President of PEN International, the worldwide association of writers and oldest human rights organization, a position he held until 1979.
It was while Vargas Llosa was heading PEN International that in 1978 several Ukrainian writers and journalists imprisoned in the Soviet Union were adopted by this organization as members to be defended. They included Vasyl Stus, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Ivan Svitlychny, Yevhen Sverstiuk, and others.
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From 2014, when Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine, occupying Crimea and part of the Donbas, the writer actively supported Ukraine.
That year, Vargas Lllosa visited Kyiv and Dnipro, and that is when I had the honor of meeting him in the Ukrainian capital. A caring and well-mannered gentleman and champion of freedom, he empathized with Ukraine and wanted to help it.
The writer had no illusions and was very open. He told me how happy he was to finally visit Ukraine and to pay his homage to it for its defense of freedom.
Addressing students at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, he said:
“I believe that here in Ukraine, a heroic feat was accomplished in the name of freedom, which deeply impressed all men and women in the world who value democracy, the rule of law, and liberty.”
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Vargas Llosa described Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a “bloodthirsty dictator” pursuing outdated, reprehensible, imperialist goals.
In 2023, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy appointed Vargas Llosa as an ambassador for the Save Ukrainian Culture initiative. In this role he helped promote Ukrainian culture internationally, particularly in Latin America and Europe.
For this reason, we say farewell and thank you to this great writer, defender of democracy, and friend of Ukraine.
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