Montevideo Uruguay - Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, who once had Marxist guerrillas and flower farmers, his radical brand of democracy, ordinary oral philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world. He is 89 years old.
Uruguay's left-wing president Yamandú Orsi announced his death four months after Mujica decided to give up further medical care for esophageal cancer and entered hospice care in his three-bedroom ranch home in the outskirts of Montevedio, the capital of Uruguay.
"President, activist, guide and leader" wrote on social media. "Dear old man, we will miss you very much. Thank you for everything you have given us and your deep love for the people."
Mujica has been receiving treatment for esophageal cancer since her pain diagnosis in spring 2024. His doctors reported that radiation had successfully eliminated most of the tumors, but Mujika's autoimmune disease complicated his recovery. In January, Mujica's doctor announced that cancer in his esophagus had returned and spread to his liver.
As the leader of the violent left-wing guerrillas in the 1960s, Mujica robbed banks, robbed bombs on the streets of Montevideo, kidnapped bombs, and kidnapped businessmen and politicians in the hope of causing a welcome uprising that would lead to Kubian socialist Uruguay.
The brutal counter-insurgency of the right-wing military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay between 1973 and 1985 and the subsequent right-wing military rule resulted in him being sentenced to nearly 15 years in prison, of which 10 years spent in solitary confinement.
During his presidency from 2010 to 2015, Mujica, known as "Pepe", oversaw his small South American country's transformation into one of the healthiest and liberal democracies in the world. He won admiration at home and abroad for legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, enacted the region’s first thorough abortion rights law and established Uruguay as the leader in alternative energy sources.
During his extraordinary political journey, Muika attracted the audience with a modest tone, a slight lifestyle and ideological earnestness.
He avoided the presidency and situation, and he opened a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle, wearing a crumpled cardigan sweater and leather sandals with black socks, and lived in a small tin house outside Montevideo, which he tended to sell on local markets for decades.
"It's a tragedy of life, beautiful on the one hand, but it's over," Muika told the Associated Press of his farmhouse in an October 2023 interview. "So, heaven is here. Just like hell."
Tributes from presidents, world leaders and ordinary people from all over the world. The first to share the commemoration were the Allied leaders who recalled not only Muika’s achievements, but also one of the last surviving lions to peak when he was in office twenty years ago as the now-recovered Latino.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro praised Mujica as a "great revolutionary." Bolivia's former socialist president Evo Morales said he was mourning "and Latin America as a whole". Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called Mujica a "model for Latin America and the entire world."
Mujica has never been to college or high school. But politics attracted his interest as early as puberty, when the young flower farmer joined the progressives of the conservative National Party, one of Uruguay's two major political parties. His dramatic hub for urban guerrilla warfare was in the 1960s, as the left-wing struggle swept the area after the Cuban Revolution.
He and other students and labor activists launched the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement, which soon became notorious for its exploitation of Robin Robin Hood Style, which was designed to install the revolutionary government.
By 1970, the government had suppressed, and Tupamaros committed violence, planting bombs in wealthy areas, attacking casinos and other targets, and eventually killing more than 30 people.
Mujica was shot and killed six times in a firefight at a bar. He helped to step onto the legendary jailbreak and escaped custody twice. But in 1973, the military occupied power, freeing the national reign of terror to the population, resulting in the enforced disappearance of about 200 Uruguayans and the imprisonment of thousands.
During his jail time, he often endured torture and prolonged torture in a hole in the ground.
After power returned to civilians in 1985, Mujica emerged from prison in amnesty, covering the crimes of dictators and their guerrilla opponents. He entered mainstream politics with a broad front, radical left and more centrist social-democratic alliance.
He was elected to parliament in 1995, surprised parking attendants and the public as they arrived with dragging agged jeans and fluffy beards.
In the party's rankings, Mujica attracted the country with a low-key lifestyle and a biased mind.
In 2005, he was appointed Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries. He held the position until 2008, when the broad front chose him as presidential candidate. A year later, he was elected as Uruguay's 40th president with 52% of the vote, limiting extraordinary political transformation.
His wife, Lucía Popolansky, a former guerrilla member of the co-revolution and was also imprisoned before becoming a famous politician, awarded Mujica the presidential belt at the inauguration, a habit of senators who received the most votes. They got married in 2005 and had no children.
"I've been with him for over 40 years, and I've been with him until the end," she told the local radio station on Sunday as Muika's condition worsened.
Pepe's modest and spontaneous style - a presidential announcement was made on sandals, a brochure against masculinity was distributed in the street, lunch at the Montevideo Bars, making him a populist folk hero and a symbol of global obsession.
"They made me look like a poor president, but they were poor presidents ... if you have to live in that four-story government house, just for tea," he told the Associated Press.
As president, he presided over a period of comfortable economic growth, rising wages and falling poverty. In his speech, he prompted the Uruguayans to reject consumerism and to uphold the simple traditions of their country.
Under his watch, the small country is well known globally for the strength of its institutions and the civilization of politics - a rare feature recently exhibited in Uruguay during the 2024 presidential vote, Mujika's moderate door-level Orsi provides power for conservative incumbent rights.
Mujica's greatest innovation is carried out on social issues. During his tenure, Uruguay became the first country in South America to legalize abortion as a pregnancy period, and the first country in the world to legalize marijuana production, distribution and sales. His government also legalized same-sex marriage in Uruguay's progressive image in the main Catholic diocese.
Mujica's government also provided Uruguay with a green energy revolution. Today, Uruguay is considered one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world, producing 98% of electricity from biomass, solar and wind energy.
His term of office is not without controversy. Opposition complained about rising crime and swollen fiscal deficits on watches, forcing his successor to raise taxes.
Some world leaders disapprove of his contempt for the established order. Conservative Uruguay is angry at his progressive policies.
Despite this, Mujica ended his term with a 60% approval rate. He could not seek reelection due to the constitution's prohibition on consecutive clauses, so he continued to play a great role as an elected senator.
Despite being a regional pioneer and global sage star, his humility defines him until the end.
"They asked you, 'How do you want to be remembered?'Vanity!" he shouted in an interview with AP. "Memory is a historical thing. ... A few years have passed. There is no even dust."