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Luis Suarez gets support from Uruguay president | Daily Star Liverpool's Luis Suarez

Luis needs to feel the human warmth of our small but great country despite our distance

Uruguay President José Mujica

José Mujica said the Liverpool striker was a “marvellous boy” who should be excused because he had never studied to be a diplomat.

Suarez, 25, was banned for eight games for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, whose hand he then refused to shake when the teams met last Saturday.

But Mujica said: “Luis needs to feel the human warmth of our small but great country despite our distance.

“That’s why we feel solidarity with him. He’s a marvellous lad who’s given us so much happiness.

“He’s a boy raised in a world of poverty whose education was light years away from the academic training of diplomatic protocol.

“He’s not racist, he never has been and he never will be. He will continue to learn, the hard way, about etiquette in society.

“This whole affair with Patrice Evra has been exaggerated in my view.”