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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
Kuwait Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Uruguay bids farewell to popular ex-leader Mujica
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay: The funeral cortege of the late Uruguay's former president (2010-2015) Jose 'Pepe' Mujica, leaves the Torre Ejecutiva in Montevideo, on May 14, 2025. — AFP MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay: Uruguay on Wednesday began bidding farewell to its former leader Jose "Pepe" Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla fighter who won global fame for his humility as the so-called "world's poorest president." The 89-year-old, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost a year-long battle against cancer on Tuesday. President Yamandu Orsi, Mujica's political heir, announced three days of national mourning. On Wednesday morning, Orsi and Mujica's widow, Lucia Topolansky, led a funeral procession from the presidential headquarters to the legislative palace, where Mujica will lie in state on Wednesday afternoon. Thousands of mourners lined Montevideo's main avenue to see the cortege, which was led by a horse-drawn carriage bearing his coffin, draped in a Uruguayan flag. "Thank you, Pepe," some people shouted. Others wept. Some mourners waved banners reading "Hasta siempre, Pepe" (Until Forever, Pepe), a slogan associated with Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. Mujica died at home on his small farm on the outskirts of Montevideo. He earned the moniker "world's poorest president" during his 2010-2015 presidency for giving away much of his salary to charity and continuing to live a simple life on the farm with his fellow ex-guerrilla wife and three-legged dog. Leftist leaders from across Latin America and Europe paid tribute to the man described by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as an "example for Latin America and the entire world." Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva echoed her sentiments, saying Mujica's "human greatness transcended the borders of Uruguay and his presidential mandate" and formed "a true song of unity and fraternity for Latin America." Mujica transformed Uruguay, a prosperous country of 3.4 million people best known for football and ranching, into one of Latin America's most progressive societies. In Montevideo, people recalled a man who practiced what he preached in terms of solidarity. "He felt and lived like ordinary people, not like today's politicians," said Walter Larus, a waiter at a corner cafe in Montevideo of which he was a patron. In the 1960s, Mujica co-founded the Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla movement Tupamaros, which started out robbing from the rich to give to the poor but later escalated its campaign to kidnappings, bombings and assassinations. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds, took part in a mass prison breakout and spent all of Uruguay's 1973-1985 dictatorship in prison, where he was tortured. After his release, he founded the MPP, the largest party in the ruling leftist Broad Front coalition. He was agriculture minister in Uruguay's first left-wing government and then served a single term as president, in keeping with Uruguay's constitution. As president, he was praised for his fight against poverty but criticized for failing to rein in public spending. He and Topolansky had no children. — AFP
New Indian Express
15-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
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.
Hindustan Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
José 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 usually had to trek out to his scrabbly farm with its three-roomed house of grey concrete where he lived for the last 40 years of his life. He often dressed in a fleece and tracksuit. 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. This frugal authenticity was one factor that turned Mr Mujica into a global icon, especially for those uncomfortable with a voracious and environmentally predatory consumer society. Another was his extraordinary life story, for the journey to the presidency had been long, tortuous and hard. The son of a florist and of a smallholder farmer who died when he was six, at 29 he joined the Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla group inspired by Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution. They were fond of Robin Hood stunts such as robbing supermarkets to distribute food to the poor. Mr Mujica was hit by six bullets when he and three comrades exchanged fire with police who had found them in a bar. He was imprisoned for a total of 14 years (he twice escaped), ten of them in solitary confinement, two at the bottom of a well with only ants and mice for company. Far from fighting for democracy as leftist myth holds, Mr Mujica and the Tupamaros fought to extinguish it in what had long been a peaceful country. In that they succeeded: in response to guerrilla violence, the armed forces staged a coup in 1973 and ruled for 12 years. At least incarceration gave Mr Mujica time to think, which he said he did a lot (as well as 'listening to the ants', he added). He emerged a changed man. Though he never made an explicit self-criticism of his guerrilla past, his actions offered one. He became a parliamentarian and a minister (of agriculture), accepting the market economy, foreign investment and liberal democracy—'and I have to make it work as well as I can,' he told The Economist. The 'enormous advantages' of democracy, he concluded, were that 'it doesn't believe itself to be finished or perfect' and its tolerance of disagreement. Because of that and because of the suffering he underwent, Uruguayans pardoned his past. A third factor in his fame he owed to Uruguay. It is a secular, progressive country, one of the first to establish a welfare state. Younger members of Mr Mujica's coalition drew on that tradition to propose new rights. As president he legalised cannabis, abortion and gay marriage. Unlike other Latin American leftist leaders, such as Rafael Correa in Ecuador or, more recently, Gustavo Petro in Colombia, he did not try to 'refound' his country. Nor did he try to rewrite the rules, in contrast to Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico with her espousal of elected judges. When Uruguay's courts knocked down six of his government's laws, he accepted it without criticism. He was not particularly good at governing. He tried and failed to reform a deteriorating education system dominated by an over-mighty trade union. He was good at talking. With a twinkle in his small, penetrating eyes, he enjoyed the cut and thrust of argument. Above all, he was not vindictive, not even against his jailers. 'I don't hate,' he said. 'Can you imagine the luxury it is not to hate?' He disappointed his own supporters by rejecting attempts to put the dictators on trial. 'Justice has the stink of vengeance,' he insisted. In that he was in tune with majority opinion in his country. He retained a vestigial, if misplaced, loyalty to the Cuban regime (he acted as a discreet messenger between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro when the two negotiated a diplomatic thaw between their countries). But in practice he had evolved into a social democrat, one who mistrusted extreme positions. He came to believe that the key to a lasting change in material conditions was to change cultural attitudes and that was harder and took longer. Ironically, perhaps, for a former Marxist, he became a tribune for anti-materialism, at least up to a point. He invited young people to live modestly because 'the more you have the less happy you are'. In a region not known for it, he was self-deprecating. 'I dedicated myself to changing the world and I didn't change anything, but it was amusing and gave sense to my life,' he said in one of his final interviews last year. His lasting legacy to the Latin American left was that he became the antithesis of a caudillo. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
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
