Latest news with #LuciaTopolansky
BBC News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
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
Fox News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Jose Mujica, Uruguay's former leader, rebel icon and cannabis reformer, dead at 89
Print Close Published May 14, 2025 Jose Mujica, a one-time guerrilla and later president of Uruguay who drove a beat-up VW Beetle and enacted progressive reforms that carried his reputation well beyond South America, has died aged 89. The straight-talking Mujica, known to many Uruguayans by his nickname "Pepe," led the small farming country's leftist government from 2010 to 2015 after convincing voters his radical past was a closed chapter. FORMER URUGUAYAN PRESIDENT JOSE MUJICA ANNOUNCES ESOPHAGEAL CANCER DIAGNOSIS "It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of our comrade Pepe Mujica," President Yamandu Orsi said in a post on X. "Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people." As president, Mujica adopted what was then a pioneering liberal stance on issues related to civil liberties. He signed a law allowing gay marriage and abortions in early pregnancy, and backed a proposal to legalize marijuana sales. The gay marriage and abortion measures were a big shift for Catholic Latin America, and the move on marijuana was at the time almost unprecedented worldwide. Regional leaders, including leftist presidents in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, mourned Mujica's passing and praised his example. "He defended democracy like few others. And he never stopped advocating for social justice and the end of all inequalities," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Mujica's "greatness transcended the borders of Uruguay and his presidential term," he added. During his term in office, Mujica refused to move to the presidential residence, choosing to stay in his modest home where he kept a small flower farm in a suburb of Montevideo, the capital. Shunning a formal suit and tie, it was common to see him driving around in his Beetle or eating at downtown restaurants where office workers had lunch. In a May 2024 interview with Reuters in the tin-roofed house that Mujica shared with his wife, former Senator Lucia Topolansky, he said he had kept the old Beetle and that it was still in "phenomenal" condition. But, he added, he preferred a turn on the tractor, saying it was "more entertaining" than a car and was a place where "you have time to think." Critics questioned Mujica's tendency to break with protocol, while his blunt and occasionally uncouth statements sometimes forced him to explain himself, under pressure from opponents and political allies alike. But it was his down-to-earth style and progressive musings that endeared him to many Uruguayans. "The problem is that the world is run by old people, who forget what they were like when they were young," Mujica said during the 2024 interview. Mujica himself was 74 when he became president. He was elected with 52% of the vote, despite some voters' concerns about his age and his past as one of the leaders of the Tupamaros rebel group in the 1960s and 1970s. Lucia Topolansky was Mujica's long-term partner, dating back to their days in the Tupamaros. The couple married in 2005, and she served as vice president from 2017-2020. After leaving office, they remained politically active, regularly attending inaugurations of Latin American presidents and giving crucial backing to candidates in Uruguay, including Orsi, who took office in March 2025. They stopped growing flowers on their small holding but continued to cultivate vegetables, including tomatoes that Topolansky pickled each season. BEHIND BARS Jose Mujica's birth certificate recorded him as born in 1935, although he claimed there was an error and that he was actually born a year earlier. He once described his upbringing as "dignified poverty." Mujica's father died when he was 9 or 10 years old, and as a boy he helped his mother maintain the farm where they grew flowers and kept chickens and a few cows. At the time Mujica became interested in politics, Uruguay's left was weak and fractured and he began his political career in a progressive wing of the center-right National Party. In the late 1960s, he joined the Marxist Tupamaros guerrilla movement, which sought to weaken Uruguay's conservative government through robberies, political kidnappings and bombings. Mujica later said that he had never killed anyone but was involved in several violent clashes with police and soldiers and was once shot six times. Uruguay's security forces gained the upper hand over the Tupamaros by the time the military swept to power in a 1973 coup, marking the start of a 12-year dictatorship in which about 200 people were kidnapped and killed. Thousands more were jailed and tortured. Mujica spent almost 15 years behind bars, many in solitary confinement, lying at the bottom of an old horse trough with only ants for company. He managed to escape twice, once by tunneling into a nearby house. His biggest "vice" as he approached 90, he later said, was talking to himself, alluding to his time in isolation. When democracy was restored to the farming country of roughly 3 million people in 1985, Mujica was released and returned to politics, gradually becoming a prominent figure on the left. He served as agriculture minister in the center-left coalition of his predecessor, President Tabaré Vázquez, who would go on to succeed him from 2015 to 2020. Mujica's support base was on the left, but he maintained a fluid dialogue with opponents within the center-right, inviting them to traditional barbecues at his home. "We can't pretend to agree on everything. We have to agree with what there is, not with what we like," he said. He believed drugs should be decriminalized "under strict state control" and addiction addressed. "I do not defend drug use. But I can't defend (a ban) because now we have two problems: drug addiction, which is a disease, and narcotrafficking, which is worse," he said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In retirement, he remained resolutely optimistic. "I want to convey to all the young people that life is beautiful, but it wears out and you fall," he said following a cancer diagnosis. "The point is to start over every time you fall, and if there is anger, transform it into hope." Print Close URL
South China Morning Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Uruguay's former leader Jose Mujica, tractor-driving leftist president, dies aged 89
Uruguay's former president Jose 'Pepe' Mujica has died aged 89. His humble lifestyle, including giving away most of his salary to charity and driving around in a sky blue Volkswagen Beetle, won him legions of fans. Dubbed the world's 'poorest president' while in office from 2010 to 2015, Mujica eschewed the trappings of success, continuing to live on his small farm with his wife and three-legged dog Manuela. He transformed Uruguay, best known for football and cattle ranching, into an outpost of progressive politics on a continent plagued by corruption and authoritarian governments. A former guerilla with a life story that read like a thriller, he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in May 2024 and underwent aggressive radiation therapy. In January, he announced he was dying after the cancer spread to his liver. This week, his wife Lucia Topolansky said he was receiving palliative care. From Chicago to the Vatican – how the world got its first US-born Pope A few months ago, Mujica had summoned his last reserves to campaign for his political heir Yamandu Orsi, who was elected president in November. Orsi's win, Mujica told Agence France-Presse in an interview after the vote, was 'something of a reward for me at the end of my career'. As president, he put Uruguay on the map by legalising abortion and gay marriage, and by making it the first country in the world to allow recreational cannabis use in 2013. He was even honoured with his own strain, 'Mujica Gold,' in 2015, despite considering marijuana a 'dangerous addiction'. Mujica – who could wax lyrical about nature, consumerism and love – attributed his simple life and philosophical musings to the 13 years he spent in prison for his role in a leftist rebel group. Supporters gather outside a Movimiento de Participación Popular political party headquarters, decorated with a photo of late former Uruguayan president Jose Mujica. Photo: AP 'We were imprisoned and alone, so to survive, we had to think and rethink a lot,' he said in a Netflix documentary on his life. Without that experience, he said, he may have been more 'frivolous'. He was disappointed at the authoritarian drift of some left-wing governments in Latin America, accusing repressive leaders in Venezuela and Nicaragua of 'messing things up'. Mujica, a descendant of Basque and Italian immigrants, was born in Montevideo on May 20, 1935, according to his identity document, although he claimed to be a year older. He was mostly raised by his mother, whom he described as 'a very tough lady', after the untimely death of his father, and grew flowers to sell at fairs to help bring in money. Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi released on bail, challenges deportation Farming was his first love, though he was passionate about politics. He got his start as a member of the conservative National Party, but in the mid-1960s joined the MLN-Tupamaros, an urban guerilla group inspired by the Cuban revolution that sought to overthrow the state and bring about socialist change. The group carried out Robin Hood-like 'expropriations', in Mujica's own words, like robbing banks to give to the poor, before escalating to kidnappings, bombings and assassinations. Mujica sustained several bullet wounds, was arrested four times and escaped twice from prison – including in the audacious 1971 breakout of scores of inmates from Montevideo's Punta Carretas prison, now a swanky shopping centre. Recaptured in 1972, he served 13 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement, during a time when Uruguay was under a military dictatorship. Newly sworn-in Uruguayan president Jose Mujica waves to the crowd in the streets of Montevideo on the day of his inauguration on March 1, 2010. Photo: AFP In 1985, he was pardoned and slowly entered politics, first as an MP and then as a senator. He served as minister of livestock, agriculture and fisheries in Uruguay's first left-wing government for three years before running for the presidency in 2009. While beloved by many for his attempts as president to tackle poverty and to turn Uruguay into one of the world's most stable democracies, critics faulted Mujica for his failure to implement education reform and rein in government spending. He was known for his candid, sometimes less-than-diplomatic, remarks. A live microphone once caught him saying: 'This old hag is worse than the one-eyed guy.' It was a reference to ex-Argentine president Cristina Kirchner and her late husband and former president Nestor Kirchner, who had a lazy eye. Pope Francis dies at 88: first Latin American pope advocated for peace and compassion After serving a single term as president, he was reelected to the Senate, but stepped down from active politics in 2020, due to the risks Covid-19 posed to his weakened immune system. He remained a key political figure, with his farm on the outskirts of Montevideo visited by a string of local and international leaders. In an August 2024 interview with The New York Times, he said he would like to be remembered as a 'crazy old man'. He is survived by his wife, a fellow ex-guerilla whom he married in 2005. He said his one regret in life was not having had children. Mujica had asked to be buried on his farm, under a tree he himself planted, alongside his dog Manuela, who died in 2018 at age 20.
The Hindu
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Jose Mujica, Uruguay's former leader, rebel icon, passes away at 89
Jose Mujica, a one-time guerrilla and later President of Uruguay who drove a beat-up VW Beetle and enacted progressive reforms that carried his reputation well beyond South America, has died aged 89. The straight-talking Mujica, known to many Uruguayans by his nickname "Pepe," led the small farming country's leftist government from 2010 to 2015 after convincing voters his radical past was a closed chapter. Also read: A President sets a rich precedent "It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of our comrade Pepe Mujica," President Yamandu Orsi said in a post on X. "Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people." As president, Mujica adopted what was then a pioneering liberal stance on issues related to civil liberties. He signed a law allowing gay marriage and abortions in early pregnancy, and backed a proposal to legalize marijuana sales. The gay marriage and abortion measures were a big shift for Catholic Latin America, and the move on marijuana was at the time almost unprecedented worldwide. Regional leaders, including leftist presidents in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, mourned Mujica's passing and praised his example. "He defended democracy like few others. And he never stopped advocating for social justice and the end of all inequalities," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Mujica's "greatness transcended the borders of Uruguay and his presidential term," he added. During his term in office, Mujica refused to move to the presidential residence, choosing to stay in his modest home where he kept a small flower farm in a suburb of Montevideo, the capital. Also read: Uruguay president's wealth: 23-year-old VW Beetle Shunning a formal suit and tie, it was common to see him driving around in his Beetle or eating at downtown restaurants where office workers had lunch. In a May 2024 interview with Reuters in the tin-roofed house that Mujica shared with his wife, former Senator Lucia Topolansky, he said he had kept the old Beetle and that it was still in "phenomenal" condition. But, he added, he preferred a turn on the tractor, saying it was "more entertaining" than a car and was a place where "you have time to think." Critics questioned Mujica's tendency to break with protocol, while his blunt and occasionally uncouth statements sometimes forced him to explain himself, under pressure from opponents and political allies alike. But it was his down-to-earth style and progressive musings that endeared him to many Uruguayans. "The problem is that the world is run by old people, who forget what they were like when they were young," Mujica said during the 2024 interview. Mujica himself was 74 when he became president. He was elected with 52% of the vote, despite some voters' concerns about his age and his past as one of the leaders of the Tupamaros rebel group in the 1960s and 1970s. Lucia Topolansky was Mujica's long-term partner, dating back to their days in the Tupamaros. The couple married in 2005, and she served as vice president from 2017-2020. After leaving office, they remained politically active, regularly attending inaugurations of Latin American presidents and giving crucial backing to candidates in Uruguay, including Orsi, who took office in March 2025. They stopped growing flowers on their small holding but continued to cultivate vegetables, including tomatoes that Topolansky pickled each season. Behind bars Jose Mujica's birth certificate recorded him as born in 1935, although he claimed there was an error and that he was actually born a year earlier. He once described his upbringing as "dignified poverty." Mujica's father died when he was 9 or 10 years old, and as a boy he helped his mother maintain the farm where they grew flowers and kept chickens and a few cows. At the time Mujica became interested in politics, Uruguay's left was weak and fractured and he began his political career in a progressive wing of the center-right National Party. In the late 1960s, he joined the Marxist Tupamaros guerrilla movement, which sought to weaken Uruguay's conservative government through robberies, political kidnappings and bombings. Mujica later said that he had never killed anyone but was involved in several violent clashes with police and soldiers and was once shot six times. Uruguay's security forces gained the upper hand over the Tupamaros by the time the military swept to power in a 1973 coup, marking the start of a 12-year dictatorship in which about 200 people were kidnapped and killed. Thousands more were jailed and tortured. Mujica spent almost 15 years behind bars, many in solitary confinement, lying at the bottom of an old horse trough with only ants for company. He managed to escape twice, once by tunneling into a nearby house. His biggest "vice" as he approached 90, he later said, was talking to himself, alluding to his time in isolation. When democracy was restored to the farming country of roughly 3 million people in 1985, Mujica was released and returned to politics, gradually becoming a prominent figure on the left. He served as agriculture minister in the center-left coalition of his predecessor, President Tabaré Vázquez, who would go on to succeed him from 2015 to 2020. Mujica's support base was on the left, but he maintained a fluid dialogue with opponents within the center-right, inviting them to traditional barbecues at his home. "We can't pretend to agree on everything. We have to agree with what there is, not with what we like," he said. He believed drugs should be decriminalized "under strict state control" and addiction addressed. "I do not defend drug use. But I can't defend (a ban) because now we have two problems: drug addiction, which is a disease, and narcotrafficking, which is worse," he said. In retirement, he remained resolutely optimistic. "I want to convey to all the young people that life is beautiful, but it wears out and you fall," he said following a cancer diagnosis. "The point is to start over every time you fall, and if there is anger, transform it into hope."
AsiaOne
14-05-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Jose Mujica, Uruguay's former leader, rebel icon and cannabis reformer, dead at 89, World News
MONTEVIDEO — Jose Mujica, a one-time guerrilla and later president of Uruguay who drove a beat-up VW Beetle and enacted progressive reforms that carried his reputation well beyond South America, has died aged 89. The straight-talking Mujica, known to many Uruguayans by his nickname "Pepe", led the small farming country's leftist government from 2010 to 2015 after convincing voters his radical past was a closed chapter. "It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of our comrade Pepe Mujica," President Yamandu Orsi said in a post on X. "Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people." As president, Mujica adopted what was then a pioneering liberal stance on issues related to civil liberties. He signed a law allowing gay marriage and abortions in early pregnancy, and backed a proposal to legalise marijuana sales. The gay marriage and abortion measures were a big shift for Catholic Latin America, and the move on marijuana was at the time almost unprecedented worldwide. Regional leaders, including leftist presidents in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, mourned Mujica's passing and praised his example. "He defended democracy like few others. And he never stopped advocating for social justice and the end of all inequalities," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Mujica's "greatness transcended the borders of Uruguay and his presidential term," he added. During his term in office, Mujica refused to move to the presidential residence, choosing to stay in his modest home where he kept a small flower farm in a suburb of Montevideo, the capital. Shunning a formal suit and tie, it was common to see him driving around in his Beetle or eating at downtown restaurants where office workers had lunch. In a May 2024 interview with Reuters in the tin-roofed house that Mujica shared with his wife, former Senator Lucia Topolansky, he said he had kept the old Beetle and that it was still in "phenomenal" condition. But, he added, he preferred a turn on the tractor, saying it was "more entertaining" than a car and was a place where "you have time to think". Critics questioned Mujica's tendency to break with protocol, while his blunt and occasionally uncouth statements sometimes forced him to explain himself, under pressure from opponents and political allies alike. But it was his down-to-earth style and progressive musings that endeared him to many Uruguayans. "The problem is that the world is run by old people, who forget what they were like when they were young," Mujica said during the 2024 interview. Mujica himself was 74 when he became president. He was elected with 52 per cent of the vote, despite some voters' concerns about his age and his past as one of the leaders of the Tupamaros rebel group in the 1960s and 1970s. Lucia Topolansky was Mujica's long-term partner, dating back to their days in the Tupamaros. The couple married in 2005, and she served as vice president from 2017-2020. After leaving office, they remained politically active, regularly attending inaugurations of Latin American presidents and giving crucial backing to candidates in Uruguay, including Orsi, who took office in March 2025. They stopped growing flowers on their small holding but continued to cultivate vegetables, including tomatoes that Topolansky pickled each season. Behind bars Jose Mujica's birth certificate recorded him as born in 1935, although he claimed there was an error and that he was actually born a year earlier. He once described his upbringing as "dignified poverty". Mujica's father died when he was 9 or 10 years old, and as a boy he helped his mother maintain the farm where they grew flowers and kept chickens and a few cows. At the time Mujica became interested in politics, Uruguay's left was weak and fractured and he began his political career in a progressive wing of the centre-right National Party. In the late 1960s, he joined the Marxist Tupamaros guerrilla movement, which sought to weaken Uruguay's conservative government through robberies, political kidnappings and bombings. Mujica later said that he had never killed anyone but was involved in several violent clashes with police and soldiers and was once shot six times. Uruguay's security forces gained the upper hand over the Tupamaros by the time the military swept to power in a 1973 coup, marking the start of a 12-year dictatorship in which about 200 people were kidnapped and killed. Thousands more were jailed and tortured. Mujica spent almost 15 years behind bars, many in solitary confinement, lying at the bottom of an old horse trough with only ants for company. He managed to escape twice, once by tunneling into a nearby house. His biggest "vice" as he approached 90, he later said, was talking to himself, alluding to his time in isolation. When democracy was restored to the farming country of roughly 3 million people in 1985, Mujica was released and returned to politics, gradually becoming a prominent figure on the left. He served as agriculture minister in the centre-left coalition of his predecessor, President Tabare Vázquez, who would go on to succeed him from 2015 to 2020. Mujica's support base was on the left, but he maintained a fluid dialogue with opponents within the centre-right, inviting them to traditional barbecues at his home. "We can't pretend to agree on everything. We have to agree with what there is, not with what we like," he said. He believed drugs should be decriminalized "under strict state control" and addiction addressed. "I do not defend drug use. But I can't defend (a ban) because now we have two problems: drug addiction, which is a disease, and narcotrafficking, which is worse," he said. In retirement, he remained resolutely optimistic. "I want to convey to all the young people that life is beautiful, but it wears out and you fall," he said following a cancer diagnosis. "The point is to start over every time you fall, and if there is anger, transform it into hope." [[nid:717570]]
