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Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
José Mujica, Uruguyan Marxist guerrilla who later became ‘the world's poorest president'
José Mujica, who has died aged 89, was a Marxist terrorist who reinvented himself to become a popular liberalising president of Uruguay in his 70s; ostentatiously rejecting the rewards of office, he earned the soubriquet 'the world's poorest president'. In the course of an adventurous career as a Marxist guerrilla, Mujica survived a gun battle with police during which he was shot six times and later spent two years incarcerated in a hole in the ground, keeping his sanity intact by befriending and conversing with a frog. In his later years his life became more mellow and, as he joined the centre-Left 'Broad Front' party, so did his politics. 'I need capitalism to work,' he observed in 2014. 'Trying to overcome it all too abruptly condemns the people you are fighting for to suffering.' Unlike many lapsed Marxists, however, he did not regard the evolution of his principles as licence to accumulate personal wealth. After being elected president of Uruguay in 2009, the 74-year-old Mujica announced on his first day in the job that he would be giving 90 per cent of his salary away to fund housing projects. He refused to move into the official presidential residence ('It's four stories. To have tea you have to walk three blocks. Useless. They should make it a high school') and remained with his wife and their three-legged dog in a one-storey farmhouse on the outskirts of Montevideo, driving to work every day in his dilapidated 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. His frugality endeared Mujica, widely known by his nickname 'El Pepe', to the Uruguayan people, and he leveraged his personal popularity to pursue a radical and controversial progressive agenda. He oversaw a transition to the widespread use of renewable energies, radically liberalised the abortion laws and, in 2013, legalised same-sex marriage. There were also bold reforms to legislation on the sale of marijuana, permitting registered households to grow up to six plants and handing responsibility for cultivation and distribution to the government, putting the drug-trafficking gangs out of business. Mujica did much to establish Uruguay's reputation as South America's most forward-thinking modern democracy and he attracted a good deal of foreign investment: perhaps wary of the example set by Hugo Chávez, his opposite number in Venezuela, he took care to maintain good relations with the United States. The Uruguayan economy grew by 3.6 per cent annually during his five-year tenure. José Alberto Mujica Cordano was born in Montevideo on May 20 1935, into what he called 'dignified poverty' as the son of Demetrio Mujica Terra, a farmer of Spanish heritage, and Lucy Cordano Giorello, a flower seller. Although he did well academically, he dropped out of high school and drifted until he became interested in radical Marxism and joined the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement in the late 1960s. This was originally a Robin Hood outfit that stole from the rich – in one instance pulling off a $6 million jewellery heist – and redistributed their gains to the poor, winning a good deal of support from the public. But in the early 1970s the Tupamaros became more violent: they murdered the US government official Dan Mitrione and kidnapped the British ambassador to Uruguay, Sir Geoffrey Jackson, holding him to ransom for eight months. Mujica later claimed to have argued against the move towards more violent tactics; if so, he was ineffectual. A wanted man, Mujica was spotted by police in a bar in Montevideo in 1970 and shot half a dozen times before being arrested and subsequently jailed. The following year some 100 Tupamaro rebel prisoners, Mujica among them, managed to tunnel out of Punta Carretas prison to freedom. In the end the Tupamaros were self-defeating, however, as the havoc they caused served as an excuse for the imposition of a Right-wing military dictatorship, following a coup d'état in 1973. The new government cracked down mercilessly on Leftists and Mujica was reinterned. He suffered torture and beatings so severe that he was left incontinent, and spent a total of more than a decade in solitary confinement, including two years in a hole in the ground with rats and frogs. He was finally released in 1985 after democratic government had been restored. Founding a new political party, the Movement of Popular Participation, he embraced the mainstream. 'Some old compañeros won't understand,' he admitted. 'They don't see our battle against people's everyday problems, that life is not a utopia.' After the party was absorbed into the Broad Front coalition, Mujica was elected to the lower house of congress in 1994 and to the senate in 1999. When Broad Front came to power for the first time in 2004, President Tabaré Vázquez appointed Mujica agriculture minister; his policy of reducing the cost of beef made him extremely popular with voters. He won the presidency by a landslide in 2009. Mujica's style was folksy and homiletic, although he had an earthier way of speaking in private. In 2013 a microphone caught him saying 'This old hag is even worse than the cross-eyed man,' in reference to the Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner. He issued a grovelling apology, although the remark did him no harm domestically. Permitted to serve only a single term by the constitution, he stepped down in 2015 and returned to the senate before retiring in 2018. He remained popular, and his campaigning last year on behalf of his Broad Front colleague Yamandú Orsi was seen as a key factor in his election as president. In 2005 José Mujica married his partner of many decades Lucía Topolansky, who had been one of his fellow Tupamaro rebels; she was vice-president of Uruguay from 2017 to 2020. José Mujica, born May 20 1935, died May 13 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Euronews
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Former Uruguayan President José Mujica dies at age of 89
Former Uruguayan President José 'Pepe' Mujica, who was famed for his humble lifestyle, has died at the age of 89. After spending almost 15 years in prison in his youth for being a guerrilla, Mujica, a flower farmer by trade, rose to political prominence in later life. Following his release from jail in an amnesty in 1985, he was elected to parliament in 1994 as part of the leftist Broad Front coalition. He later became a senator, before serving as the country's president from 2010 to 2015. His presidency was marked by his rejection of the usual trappings enjoyed by a head of state. Instead of living in the presidential palace, Mujica remained in his single-storey tin-roof house outside the capital Montevideo. He sometimes drove to work in his beaten-up blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. Under Mujica's leadership, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalise and fully regulate marijuana, and the second Latin American nation to allow same-sex marriages and decriminalise abortion. Although an immediate cause was not given for his death, Mujica was diagnosed last spring with oesophageal cancer, which had recently spread to his liver. His death led to an outpouring of messages from leftist leaders across Latin America. Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi expressed his deep sorrow at the death of his political mentor, whom he called a 'president, activist, guide and leader'. 'We will miss you greatly, dear old man. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your profound love for your people,' he said. Elsewhere, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum described the late Uruguayan leader as 'an example for Latin America and the entire world', while Chile's leftist President Gabriel Boric said Mujica instilled in people 'the unquenchable hope that things can be done better'. The Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo, of the centre-left Semilla party, also paid tribute to him as 'an example of humility and greatness'. 'Your work and your words are a legacy, both a path and a hope,' he said. Mujica was born on 20 May 1935, in the outskirts of Montevideo. He said his mother, who was a flower merchant, instilled in him a love of politics, books and working the land. In the 1960s, he helped to set up the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement, a guerrilla movement which aimed to inspire an uprising that would lead to Cuban-style socialism in Uruguay. As part of their insurgency, the Tupamaros planted bombs, kidnapped civilians and carried out executions. Mujica always maintained that he did not commit murder. As violence in the country escalated, Mujica was shot six times in a firefight with police. He twice escaped custody, but spent long stretches in solitary confinement under the military dictatorship that ruled the country for 12 years from 1973. Two decades after he was released from prison, he became agricultural minister in 2005. Four years later he was elected as his country's 40th president, receiving 52% of the vote. Unable to seek reelection because of a constitutional ban on consecutive terms, Mujica left office in 2015 with an approval rating of 60%. Despite his popularity, the opposition complained that crime rose and the fiscal deficit increased during his tenure. Mujica is survived by his wife, Lucía Topolansky, who was also a guerrilla-turned-politician. The couple, who had been together for more than four decades, married in 2005 and had no children. The late Uruguayan leader was sometimes referred to as the 'world's poorest president' because of the modest way he lived. He rejected the title, saying instead that the real poor are those who crave more possessions.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Uruguay's José Mujica, world's 'poorest president', dies
Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, known as "Pepe", has died at the age of 89. The ex-guerrilla who governed Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 was known as the world's "poorest president" because of his modest lifestyle. Current President Yamandú Orsi announced his predecessor's death on X, writing: "thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people." The politician's cause of death is not known but he had been suffering from oesophageal cancer. Because of the simple way he lived as president, his criticism of consumerism and the social reforms he promoted - which, among other things, meant Uruguay became the first country to legalise the recreational use of marijuana - Mujica became a well-known political figure in Latin America and beyond. His global popularity is unusual for a president of Uruguay, a country with just 3.4 million inhabitants where his legacy has also generated some controversy. In fact, even though many tended to see Mujica as someone outside the political class, that was not the case. He said his passion for politics, as well as for books and working the land, was passed on to him by his mother, who raised him in a middle-class home in Montevideo, the capital city. As a young man, Mujica was a member of the National Party, one of Uruguay's traditional political forces, which later became the centre-right opposition to his government. In the 1960s, he helped set up the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement (MLN-T), a leftist urban guerrilla group that carried out assaults, kidnappings and executions, although he always maintained that he did not commit any murder. Influenced by the Cuban revolution and international socialism, the MLN-T launched a campaign of clandestine resistance against the Uruguayan government, which at the time was constitutional and democratic, although the left accused it of being increasingly authoritarian. During this period, Mujica was captured four times. On one of those occasions, in 1970, he was shot six times and nearly died. He escaped from prison twice, on one occasion through a tunnel with 105 other MLN-T prisoners, in one of the largest escapes in Uruguayan prison history. When the Uruguayan military staged a coup in 1973, they included him in a group of "nine hostages" who they threatened to kill if the guerrillas continued their attacks. During the more than 14 years he spent in prison during the 1970s and 1980s, he was tortured and spent most of that time in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy. He used to say that during his time in prison, he experienced madness first hand, suffering from delusions and even talking to ants. The day he was freed was his happiest memory, he says: "Becoming president was insignificant compared to that." A few years after his release, he served as a lawmaker, both in the Chamber of Representatives and in the Senate, the country's lower and upper houses respectively. In 2005, he became minister in the first government of the Frente Amplio, the Uruguayan leftist coalition, before becoming Uruguay's president in 2010. He was 74 years old at the time, and, to the rest of the world, still unknown. His election marked an important moment for the Latin American left, which was already strong on the continent at that time. Mujica became leader alongside other left-wing presidents such as Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. However, Mujica governed in his own way, demonstrating pragmatism and audacity on several occasions, political commentators say. During his administration, amid a fairly favourable international context, the Uruguayan economy grew at an average annual rate of 5.4%, poverty was reduced, and unemployment remained low. Uruguay also drew global attention for the social laws passed by parliament during those years, such as the legalisation of abortion, the recognition of same-sex marriage, and state regulation of the marijuana market. While in office, Mujica rejected moving into the presidential residence (a mansion), as heads of state around the world usually do. Instead, he remained with his wife - politician and former guerrilla Lucía Topolansky - in their modest home on the outskirts of Montevideo, with no domestic help and little security. This combined with the fact that he always dressed casually, that he was often seen driving his light blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle and gave away a large portion of his salary, led some media outlets to call him "the world's poorest president". But Mujica always rejected that title: "They say I'm the poorest president. No, I'm not," he told me in a 2012 interview at his home. "Poor are those who want more [...] because they're in an endless race." Despite Mujica preaching austerity, his government did significantly increase public spending, widening the fiscal deficit and leading his opponents to accuse him of waste. Mujica was also criticised for failing to reverse the growing problems in Uruguayan education, despite having promised that education would be a top priority for his administration. However, unlike other leaders in the region, he was never accused of corruption or of undermining his country's democracy. By the end of his administration, Mujica had a high domestic popularity rating (close to 70%) and was elected senator, but also spent part of his time travelling the world after he stepped down as president. "So what it is that catches the world's attention? That I live with very little, a simple house, that I drive around in an old car? Then this world is crazy because it's surprised by [what is] normal," he reflected before leaving office. Mujica retired from politics in 2020 though he remained a central figure in Uruguay. His political heir, Yamandú Orsi, was elected president of Uruguay in November 2024 and his group within the Frente Amplio obtained the largest number of parliamentary seats since the country's return to democracy. Last year, Mujica announced he had cancer and references to his age and the inexorable proximity of death became more frequent - but he always accepted the final outcome as something natural, without drama. In the last interview he gave the BBC in November last year, he said: "One knows that death is inevitable. And perhaps it's like the salt of life." World's 'poorest' ex-leader refuses pension Uruguay bids farewell to pauper president Uruguay leader gets $1m Beetle offer
Boston Globe
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
José Mujica, Marxist rebel in Uruguay who became president, dies at 89
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I am more than completely cured of simplifications, of dividing the world into good and evil, of thinking in black and white,' Mr. Mujica said in a 2009 speech while campaigning for the presidency. 'I have repented.' Advertisement After winning the election, he told the British newspaper the Guardian: 'I need capitalism to work . . . to attend to the serious problems we have. Trying to overcome it all too abruptly condemns the people you are fighting for to suffering, so that instead of more bread, you have less bread.' As president from 2010 to 2015, Mr. Mujica oversaw an economic boom as well as a reduction in poverty and the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage, and marijuana. His accomplishments made him one of the most successful leaders during the 'pink tide,' the wave of left-wing presidents elected across Latin America in the early 21st century after years of military dictatorships and conservative civilian governments. Advertisement Unlike Hugo Chávez, the authoritarian socialist who ruled Venezuela for 14 years, Mr. Mujica fostered good relations with the United States and refused to tinker with his country's constitution to prolong his presidency. He also avoided the corruption and other acts of malfeasance that blighted or brought down presidents in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay. The presidency did little to change Mr. Mujica's ascetic lifestyle. He continued to drive a battered 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. He donated most of his salary to charity and eschewed the presidential mansion with its 42 servants for a ramshackle flower farm, where he lived with his wife and a three-legged dog. Such practices earned him the moniker 'the world's poorest president.' 'Whatever your own particular shade of politics,' the BBC declared, 'it's impossible not to be impressed or beguiled by José 'Pepe' Mujica.' José Alberto Mujica Cordano was born in Montevideo on May 20, 1935. He was 8 when his father, a peasant, died, leaving him to be raised by his mother, a flower seller. He grew up in what he described as 'dignified poverty.' Although reputedly a promising student, he dropped out of high school, sold flowers, worked in a bakery, and consorted with small-time criminals before drifting into radical politics. In the early 1960s, he was hired as an organizer for Enrique Erro, a popular left-wing lawmaker and labor minister. While working for Erro, he traveled to the Soviet Union and China. But the stagnation and authoritarianism of Eastern Bloc communism made him a skeptic of rigid political orthodoxies. In Cuba, by contrast, he was mesmerized by Fidel Castro's revolution and decided to follow a similar path in Uruguay by joining the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement. Advertisement By then, Uruguay's economy was floundering while frustration mounted over the political domination by traditional parties. Initially, Mr. Mujica and his Tupamaro comrades garnered support with quirky escapades, such as plundering groceries, toy stores, and casinos and distributing the loot to the poor. But the goodwill evaporated when the rebels began bombing companies, abducting politicians and diplomats, and executing government troops. Mr. Mujica insisted that he tried to keep violence to a minimum. But in 1970, when police spotted him in a Montevideo bar, he pulled a pistol and was hit by six bullets in the ensuing gun battle. After he recovered, Mr. Mujica was sent to prison, where, in what would be the Tupamaros's last hurrah as an armed group, he and 105 other rebels escaped through a tunnel. The prison break prompted a massive military backlash. Most of the fugitives were rounded up, numerous Tupamaro leaders were killed, and, in 1973, Uruguay's democracy was stamped out in a civilian-military coup that ushered in 12 years of brutal authoritarian rule. During that period, a peace commission found, the dictatorship killed 175 leftist political activists and forced thousands into exile. Back in prison, Mr. Mujica was subjected to beatings and electric shocks that left him incontinent and nearly toothless. He spent more than a decade in solitary confinement in total, including about two years in a hole in the ground where he shared space with rats and frogs. Advertisement 'Pepe had long lost track of the frontier between reality and imagination,' Mauricio Rosencof, a fellow Tupamaro inmate, told Pablo Brum, author of the book 'The Robin Hood Guerrillas.' 'It was a horrible thing to witness.' Eventually, Mr. Mujica was allowed to see a psychiatrist, read books, and grow flowers in his cell. After democracy was reestablished in 1985 and political prisoners were freed, Mr. Mujica - more than any of his comrades - managed a smooth transition to civilian life. 'Sometimes, pain is a good thing if you're capable of turning it into something else,' Mr. Mujica told students at Washington's American University in 2014. Prison, he said, 'was bad, but at the same time, I found myself. If anything ever happens to you, try to remember that you're strong and that you can start over and that it's worth it.' Mr. Mujica proved to be an effective, homespun public speaker. He once delighted TV viewers by calling a stuffy news anchor a 'turnip.' Within a few years, he and other former Tupamaros members helped create the Movement of Popular Participation, a political party that became a key faction within Uruguay's leftist Broad Front coalition. Mr. Mujica emerged as a popular candidate. He was elected to the lower House of Congress in 1994 and to the Senate in 1999. He became agriculture minister in 2005, and four years later he won a landslide victory in the presidential election. Under Mr. Mujica, Uruguay's economy grew by 3.6 percent annually, foreign investment flowed in, renewable energy projects took off, and the number of people living in poverty dwindled. He signed a 2012 law that waived criminal penalties for ending pregnancies during the first trimester, making Uruguay one of the most permissive countries in Latin America on the abortion issue. In 2013, he signed a marriage-equality law. Advertisement 'Abortion is as old as the world,' Mr. Mujica told Brazil's O Globo newspaper. 'Same-sex marriage, please, it's older than the world.' His boldest stroke, in 2013, was signing what was at the time a pioneering marijuana legalization law. It allowed registered households to grow up to six marijuana plants and for adults to buy up to 40 grams of cannabis per month at state-run pharmacies. The government also took over the cultivation and distribution of the drug. Mr. Mujica, who preferred cigarettes and rum, argued that legalization would take power and profit away from drug-trafficking gangs. At times, he was applauded as an unvarnished truth-teller. At the Rio+20 U.N. summit in 2012, he scolded world leaders for preaching environmentalism while permitting unbridled industrial growth. As his stature grew, Mr. Mujica met with Argentine-born Pope Francis and such celebrities as the rock band Aerosmith. But he said he was unimpressed by fame. 'If you don't have many possessions,' he told the BBC, 'then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself. I may appear to be an eccentric old man . . . but this is a free choice.' Mr. Mujica leaves his wife, Lucía Topolansky, a former Tupamaro rebel and legislator who in 2017 became Uruguay's first female vice president. The couple had no children because, Mr. Mujica once explained, they were too busy trying to forge a new society. 'I belong to a generation that sought to change the world,' he said. 'If there were no dreamers in this world, we would still be walking around the jungle wearing loincloths.' Advertisement
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
José 'Pepe' Mujica, former president of Uruguay, icon of Latin American left, dies at 89
May 13 (UPI) -- José "Pepe" Mujica, former president of Uruguay and a symbol of the Latin American left, died Tuesday at the age of 89 in Montevideo after a battle with esophageal cancer. "With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of Pepe Mujica. President, activist, leader and guide. We will miss you dearly, old friend. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your profound love for your people," said Uruguay's current president, Yamandú Orsi, in a statement. Mujica served as Uruguay's president from 2010 to 2015. Before entering politics, he was a member of the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement in the 1960s. His involvement in the guerrilla group led to his imprisonment for 13 years under Uruguay's military dictatorship. Released in 1985, he joined the Broad Front coalition, where he held various positions, including senator and minister of livestock, agriculture and fisheries. In April 2024, Mujica publicly disclosed his diagnosis with esophageal cancer. By January 2025, he announced that the disease had spread and that he would no longer pursue treatment, stating: "The warrior has the right to rest." As president, Mujica championed progressive reforms that positioned Uruguay as a regional pioneer. His administration legalized abortion, same-sex marriage and cannabis, drawing international attention. Beyond politics, Mujica became widely known for his humble lifestyle, often opting to live in his modest rural home and donating most of his presidential salary to charity. Plans for his funeral and official tributes have not yet been announced.
