Uruguay's José Mujica, world's 'poorest president', dies

[ad_1] Gerardo Lissardy BBC Information Mundo

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/c871/live/51e9ec90-302a-11f0-9c4d-7b4728612d5d.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="AFP/Getty Images Former Uruguayan President José Mujica gives a thumbs up while sitting among a crowd at an event earlier in 2025" class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> AFP/Getty Photos Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, often called "Pepe", has died on the age of 89.

The ex-guerrilla who ruled Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 was often called the world's "poorest president" due to his modest way of life.

Present President Yamandú Orsi introduced his predecessor's loss of life on X, writing: "thank you for every little thing you gave us and for your deep love for your folks."

The politician's reason behind loss of life isn't identified however he had been affected by oesophageal most cancers.

Due to the easy manner he lived as president, his criticism of consumerism and the social reforms he promoted - which, amongst different issues, meant Uruguay grew to become the primary nation to legalise the leisure use of marijuana - Mujica grew to become a well known political determine in Latin America and past.

His world reputation is uncommon for a president of Uruguay, a rustic with simply 3.4 million inhabitants the place his legacy has additionally generated some controversy.

The truth is, though many tended to see Mujica as somebody exterior the political class, that was not the case.

He stated his ardour for politics, in addition to for books and dealing the land, was handed on to him by his mom, who raised him in a middle-class house in Montevideo, the capital metropolis.

As a younger man, Mujica was a member of the Nationwide Get together, considered one of Uruguay's conventional political forces, which later grew to become the centre-right opposition to his authorities.

Within the Nineteen Sixties, he helped arrange the Tupamaros Nationwide Liberation Motion (MLN-T), a leftist city guerrilla group that carried out assaults, kidnappings and executions, though he at all times maintained that he didn't commit any homicide.

Influenced by the Cuban revolution and worldwide socialism, the MLN-T launched a marketing campaign of clandestine resistance in opposition to the Uruguayan authorities, which on the time was constitutional and democratic, though the left accused it of being more and more authoritarian.

Throughout this era, Mujica was captured 4 occasions. On a kind of events, in 1970, he was shot six occasions and practically died.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e2e0/live/0264afe0-302d-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Uruguayan politician and former President of Uruguay José Mujica works on his crops in May 2010 in Montevideo, Uruguay. (Photo by Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images)." class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Photos Mujica can be remembered for the easy way of life he adopted out and in of politics

He escaped from jail twice, on one event by means of a tunnel with 105 different MLN-T prisoners, in one of many largest escapes in Uruguayan jail historical past.

When the Uruguayan navy staged a coup in 1973, they included him in a bunch of "9 hostages" who they threatened to kill if the guerrillas continued their assaults.

Throughout the greater than 14 years he spent in jail in the course of the Seventies and Eighties, he was tortured and spent most of that point in harsh circumstances and isolation, till he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.

He used to say that in his time in jail, he skilled insanity first hand, affected by delusions and even speaking to ants.

The day he was freed was his happiest reminiscence, he says: "Turning into president was insignificant in comparison with that."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/017b/live/5e25df80-302c-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="AGENCIA CAMARATRES/AFP via Getty Images A black and white picture of José Mujica sitting next to two others on the day of their liberation as political prisoners in Montevideo in March 1985." class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> AGENCIA CAMARATRES/AFP by way of Getty Photos Mujica (left) on the day he was freed in Montevideo in March 1985

From guerrilla to president

A couple of years after his launch, he served as a lawmaker, each within the Chamber of Representatives and within the Senate, the nation's decrease and higher homes respectively.

In 2005, he grew to become minister within the first authorities of the Frente Amplio, the Uruguayan leftist coalition, earlier than changing into Uruguay's president in 2010.

He was 74 years outdated on the time, and, to the remainder of the world, nonetheless unknown.

His election marked an vital second for the Latin American left, which was already sturdy on the continent at the moment. Mujica grew to become chief alongside different left-wing presidents comparable to Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.

Nevertheless, Mujica ruled in his personal manner, demonstrating pragmatism and audacity on a number of events, political commentators say.

Throughout his administration, amid a reasonably beneficial worldwide context, the Uruguayan financial system grew at a median annual price of 5.4%, poverty was decreased, and unemployment remained low.

Uruguay additionally drew world consideration for the social legal guidelines handed by parliament throughout these years, such because the legalisation of abortion, the popularity of same-sex marriage, and state regulation of the marijuana market.

Whereas in workplace, Mujica rejected shifting into the presidential residence (a mansion), as heads of state around the globe often do.

As a substitute, he remained together with his spouse - politician and former guerrilla Lucía Topolansky - of their modest house on the outskirts of Montevideo, with no home assist and little safety.

This mixed with the truth that he at all times dressed casually, that he was typically seen driving his mild blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle and gave away a big portion of his wage, led some media shops to name him "the world's poorest president".

However Mujica at all times rejected that title: "They are saying I am the poorest president. No, I am not," he informed me in a 2012 interview at his house. "Poor are those that need extra [...] as a result of they're in an infinite race."

Regardless of Mujica preaching austerity, his authorities did considerably improve public spending, widening the fiscal deficit and main his opponents to accuse him of waste.

Mujica was additionally criticised for failing to reverse the rising issues in Uruguayan training, regardless of having promised that training could be a prime precedence for his administration.

Nevertheless, not like different leaders within the area, he was by no means accused of corruption or of undermining his nation's democracy.

By the tip of his administration, Mujica had a excessive home reputation ranking (near 70%) and was elected senator, but additionally spent a part of his time travelling the world after he stepped down as president.

"So what it's that catches the world's consideration? That I reside with little or no, a easy home, that I drive round in an outdated automotive? Then this world is loopy as a result of it is shocked by [what is] regular," he mirrored earlier than leaving workplace.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/92e7/live/e0033940-302b-11f0-bac1-455003a02fad.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Former President of Uruguay José Mujica and presidential candidate for the Frente Amplio party Yamandu Orsi greet their supporters at the closing campaign rally in April 2024 in Montevideo, Uruguay. (Photo by Ernesto Ryan/Getty Images)" class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Photos Mujica's political inheritor, Yamandú Orsi, was elected president of Uruguay in November

Mujica retired from politics in 2020 although he remained a central determine in Uruguay.

His political inheritor, Yamandú Orsi, was elected president of Uruguay in November 2024 and his group inside the Frente Amplio obtained the most important variety of parliamentary seats because the nation's return to democracy.

Final 12 months, Mujica introduced he had most cancers and references to his age and the inexorable proximity of loss of life grew to become extra frequent - however he at all times accepted the ultimate final result as one thing pure, with out drama.

Within the final interview he gave the BBC in November final 12 months, he stated: "One is aware of that loss of life is inevitable. And maybe it is just like the salt of life."