José Mujica, Uruguay's humble president who changed his country and charmed the world, dies at 89
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay: Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died. He was 89.
Uruguay's left-wing president, Yamandú Orsi, announced his death, which came four months after Mujica decided to forgo further medical treatment for esophageal cancer and enter hospice care at his three-room ranch house on the outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay's capital.
'President, activist, guide and leader,' Orsi wrote of his longtime political mentor before heading to Mujica's home to pay his respects. 'Thank you for everything you gave us.'
Mujica had been under treatment for cancer of the esophagus since his diagnosis last spring. Radiation eliminated much of the tumor but soon Mujica's autoimmune disease complicated his recovery.
In January, Mujica's doctor announced that the cancer in his esophagus had returned and spread to his liver. In recent days, 'he knew that he was in his final hours,' said Fernando Pereira, the president of Mujica's left-wing Broad Front party who visited the ailing ex-leader last week.
A colorful history and simple philosophy
As leader of a violent leftist guerrilla group in the 1960s known as the Tupamaros, Mujica robbed banks, planted bombs and abducted businessmen and politicians on Montevideo's streets in hopes of provoking a popular uprising that would lead to a Cuban-style socialist Uruguay.
A brutal counterinsurgency and ensuing right-wing military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay between 1973 and 1985 sent him to prison for nearly 15 years, 10 of which he spent in solitary confinement.
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