José Mujica, Uruguay's modest leader, dies at the age of 89
José Mujica, Uruguay's modest leader, dies at the age of 89
The former President Uruguays,
"It is deeply regretted that we announce the death of our comrade Pepe Mujica," said Uruguayian President Yamandú Orsi on X. "President, activist, guide and signpost. We will miss you very much, dear old man. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your profound love for your people."
mujica will remember as a down -to -earth former guerrilla leader, who maintained a modest lifestyle during his presidency and preferred not to perform his tasks from the presidential palace, but from his rural farm. Mujica fought against cancer for over a year and in 2024 told journalists that he would continue to fight for as long as he could. "I will continue to fight alongside my comrades, faithfully my style of thinking, and have fun with my vegetables and chickens," he said. "I am grateful for the rest, because in the end I can't take what I had." "Pepe" Mujica, as he is generally known, appeared in the 1960s as the leader of the left militant group Tupamaros. In the 1960s and 1970s, this led an armed uprising against the government, inspired by the Cuban Revolution. The uprising was depressed during the military dictatorship in Uruguay, and Mujica spent almost 15 years in prison and experienced many forms of torture. "I was tied up with wire for six months, with my hands behind my back; was thrown into a truck for two or three days; and I was not allowed to go to the toilet for two years and had to bathe with a jug, a mug of water and a handkerchief," he described the horrors of this time in 2020. After the restoration of democracy in 1985, Mujica was released from prison. Four years later, he and other members of the Tupamaros founded the Movement of Popular Participation (mpp), under whose banners he won in parliament. In 2009 he ran for the presidential office and won with more than 50 % of the votes. Under his lead between 2010 and 2015, the Uruguayan economy grew and implemented several progressive reforms. Uruguay legalized abortion, marriage for same -sex couples and allowed the leisure use of cannabis, which the country for First Nation of the world did this. his supporters regarded him as one of the most modest leaders who had ever had, and referred to his decision to do without the presidential palace and to live in a rural farmhouse. In 2012 he gave CNN a guided tour of his farm, on which he showed how he ordered the fields, planted fresh fruits and chrysanthemums and was in an old Volkswagen beetle. his modest life led many to describe him as the “poorest president in the world”, a title with which he did not feel comfortable. "I am not a poor president; poor is someone who needs a lot," he said in an interview with CNN in 2014. "My definition comes from Seneca. I am a sober president; I need little to live because I live as I lived long before I lived." In April 2024, Mujica announced that he has a evil tumor Course esophagus was diagnosed. After months of treatment, his doctor said in August Remission was, but he had developed a "kidney disease" due to radiation therapy. In January he announced that the cancer had spread to his liver and told the Uruguayian medium of Búsqueda that he " Sterbe . " He decided to do without further treatments and asked to be left alone at dusk of his life. "I'm damn it, brother. It's as far as I come," he said. Fi from all over Latin America mourned the deceased president and said that the region had lost a lighthouse of hope and modesty. Alberto Fernández, the former president of neighboring Argentina, praised Mujica's modesty and described him as "an example of austerity in a society that rewards those who accumulate the wealth." The former Bolivian President Evo Morales, a left leader who was in office at about the same time as Mujica, described him as a "brother" full of wisdom, whose teachings would live on. The Chilean President Gabriel Boric expressed similar thoughts and said: "If you have left us something, then the insatiable hope that things can be done better - 'step by step so as not to get off the way', as you once said." Veronica Calderon from CNN contributed to this report. an important loss for Uruguay
fight against cancer
a modest leadership personality
progressive reforms in Uruguay
The "poorest president in the world"
The past few months
Latin America in mourning
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