José 'El Pepe' Mujica became the antithesis of a caudillo
It is not a flashy country and José Mujica, who died on May 13th aged 89, became its epitome. As Uruguay's president from 2010 to 2015 he continued to drive a battered sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle and to lunch in workaday bars on the main street of Montevideo, the capital. Foreign dignitaries or journalists who sought an audience with 'El Pepe' usually had to trek to his scrabbly farm with its three-roomed concrete house where he lived for the last 40 years of his life. He often dressed in a tracksuit and fleece. He gave away much of his presidential salary. If it was partly a theatrical act, almost a caricature, it was one he lived to the full. He had a deep and genuine hatred of pomp and flummery, which he saw as inimical to the egalitarian principles of a democratic republic.
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Lives Less Ordinary José Mujica: Guerilla, president and occasional romantic
Remembering the former president of Uruguay: José 'Pepe' Mujica. He started life as a flower farmer on the outskirts of Montevideo. As a young man he became politically active, part of the left-wing guerilla group the Tupamaros, who were bent on revolution through armed struggle that involved bank heists and kidnappings. With the authorities on his tail Pepe was eventually captured, he was shot six times and later staged what became a record-breaking prison escape. When he was captured and imprisoned again, he was held for 13 years in horrendous conditions but he says the pain and loneliness of that time was when he learned the most about life. A year after the military regime stepped down, Pepe was released and joined formal politics and in 2010 he was voted in as president of Uruguay. He shunned the presidential palace and car for his crumbling farmhouse and old VW Beetle and brought in laws legalising gay marriage and abortion. He had his critics but when he died earlier this month, thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects. We spoke to Pepe alongside his wife Lucia Topolansky in 2023 and they talked about how their love had changed over their decades together. Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Louise Morris Get in touch: liveslessordinary@ or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
Economist
15-05-2025
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José 'El Pepe' Mujica became the antithesis of a caudillo
It is not a flashy country and José Mujica, who died on May 13th aged 89, became its epitome. As Uruguay's president from 2010 to 2015 he continued to drive a battered sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle and to lunch in workaday bars on the main street of Montevideo, the capital. Foreign dignitaries or journalists who sought an audience with 'El Pepe' usually had to trek to his scrabbly farm with its three-roomed concrete house where he lived for the last 40 years of his life. He often dressed in a tracksuit and fleece. He gave away much of his presidential salary. If it was partly a theatrical act, almost a caricature, it was one he lived to the full. He had a deep and genuine hatred of pomp and flummery, which he saw as inimical to the egalitarian principles of a democratic republic.
Times
14-05-2025
- Times
José Mujica obituary: idiosyncratic president of Uruguay
Before José Mujica became president of Uruguay in 2010 he was best known as a former guerrilla leader who drove a battered 1987 powder-blue Volkswagen Beetle, grew chrysanthemums and lived in a dilapidated single-storey farmhouse 20 minutes outside Montevideo with his wife, also a former revolutionary, and Manuela, their three-legged yappy black mongrel. Little changed in office. Known as 'the most humble president in the world', Mujica turned the 100-year-old Estévez presidential palace into a museum, crawled to work in his Beetle and donated 90 per cent of his £7,100-a-month salary to social projects. 'I am rich here,' he told a journalist, tapping his chest as he brought out two tatty cushions and plonked them on a pair of rusty garden chairs. Those who considered
