José “Pepe” Mujica driving a tractor on her farm (photo Ansa).
The poorest president in the world had defined it. Even if he, speaking once, in 2015, at the then king of Spain Carlos of Bourbon, he explained: “Poor are those who need a lot. I learned to live with a light baggage“. José” Pepe “Mujica, former president of Uruguay, disappeared at the age of 89 (he would have made 90 May 20), due to cancer. A life – his – sober, simple, humble, marked by frugality and austerity. A rare example, admirable of political leader far light years away from luxury, wealth, ostentation, open -eightth adverse to any form of consumerism.
Born in 1935 in Montevideo, Mujica, at the time of the dictatorship in her country – which began with the 1973 coup and lasted until 1985 – He joined as a guerrilla with the tupamaros (national liberation movement), a Marxist-Leninist-inspired urban guerrilla organization active in Uruguay between the 60s and 70s. Fero as a gunfight, he was arrested and spent many years in prison, until 1985, when, restored democracy in Uurguay, he was freed thanks to an amnesty.
Subsequently, he embarked on his political career, as a deputy, Senator, Minister, finally president from 2010 to 2015, when he decided not to recover, despite the enormous global popularity that his certainly very charismatic figure had earned. During his presidential mandate Mujica renounced most of his compensation, which he allocated to charity. He always refused to get rid of his beloved Blue Beetle of 1987 that he was given by friends. The images that portray him dressed in a very simple and discharged way, Amagari also driving a tractor, in the small, humble farm on the outskirts of Montevideo in which he chose to live with Lucía Topolansky, the woman who knew at the time of her clandestinity, who married, remained at her side for her life and who in an interview with Bbc Mundo, he had defined the images. companion “.
Prominent personality of the Latin American left, Very close to the Venezuelan president leader of Bolivarian socialism of the 21st century Hugo Chavez and friend of the Brazilian presidential Lula, The president of Uruguay promoted social reforms, some of which aroused many disputes, In particular, the decriminalization of abortion, the introduction of marriage between people of the same sex e The law that led Uruguay to be the first country in the world to legalize the production, sale and consumption of cannabis. While declaring himself against the use of drugs, in fact, Mujica He was very worried by drug trafficking And he was convinced that the only way to go was that of legalization because the repressive way, for him, was a lost war.
(Ansa photo)