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 left 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.
The guerrilla years
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.
