José “Pepe” Mujicaborn in Montevideo on May 20, 1935 and disappeared on May 13, 2025 at 89 for an esophagus cancer, was a political activist and a guerrilla Uruguayan who became president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 and reference figure of the South American left. As a young man he played in Tupamaros movement And for this he spent thirteen years in prison. Liberated in 1985 thanks to an amnesty, he resumed political activity and was elected to prestigious institutional positions, up to the Presidency of Uruguay. His presidency, which lasted five years, focused above all on the poorest populationthe commitment to the civil rights and the lifestyle sober and anti -corporate. It was known as “the poorest president in the world” because he received a salary equivalent to 800 euros per month. As president, Mujica has gained great popularity even outside the Uruguayans borders. His disappearance leaves a political and human void difficult to fill.
Birth and first political activities of Pepe Mujica
José Alberto Mujica Cordano, known as Pepe Mujica, was a Uruguayan politician and president of Uruguay between 2010 and 2015. Born in 1935 in Montevideo from one family of Basque originAs a teenager, Mujica delight in sport, but soon abandoned the sporting activity in favor of the political one. In 1956 he enrolled in the National partya centrist and nationalist political formation, which left after a short time to adhere to groups lined with more left, of a strongly socialist mold: first reaching thePopular Union and, from the early 1960s, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaroswhich, inspired by the Cuban revolution, promoted urban guerrilla war activities and fought for workers’ rights. In those years of military dictatorship, in fact, there was a very strong gap between the rich and poor classes and a growing political repression that blocked any attempt to improve from the bottom. Compared to other minor guerrilla groups that concentrated in the countryside areas, the Tupamaros challenged the dictatorship with kidnappings, robberies and sabotages in the cities.
The name of the movement came from the general Túpac Amaru IIthe Peruvian indigenous leader who had guided a revolt against Spanish domination in the eighteenth century so many decades.
Mujica was wounded several times During the actions of Guerriglia and suffered different arrests. In 1971 he managed to escape from prison, but the following year, when Uruguay was crossing a phase of growing authoritarianism and limitation of rights, it was again captured and locked up in prison.
From the dictatorship to the restoration of democracy
Mujica was in prison in 1973, when the president of Uruguay, Juan María Bordaberry, created a coup, melting Parliament. Thus began the long Civil-Milan dictatorship Uruguayanawhich held power for twelve years. Mujica was freed thanks to an amnesty only after the restoration of democracy, in 1985. He did not lose time, and immediately resumed political activity, founding with other former members of the tupamaros the Popular participation movementa left -wing political group that adhered to a wider coalition, the Large frontdeployed on progressive positions.
In 1994 Mujica was elected deputy and in 1999 he became senator. The consents of the large front and the movement of popular participation gradually increased and Mujica also gained popularity, especially after, in 1999, the writer Miguel Angel Campodónico published his biography, simply entitled Mujica.
In 2005 he entered the government with the position of Minister of Agriculture, which he held for three years.
Mujica President of Uruguay
In 2009 Mujica came to the presidency of the Republic and was the winner of the ballot with the 55% of the votes. He settled on March 1, 2010 and retained the office for five years. As president, Mujica took care of social policiesacting, at least in part, in continuity with its predecessor, Tabaré Vázquez, with the increase in social spending and the introduction of policies to combat poverty. The choices of Mujica took place to Uruguay to become one of the most attentive Latin American countries to social rights.
The president also strenuously supported i civil rightslegalizing marriages between people of the same sex, changing the Law on abortion and making legal, within certain limits, the light drugs. In foreign policy, he approached the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez, the Brazil of Lula and the Argentine of Cristina Kirchner.
From the point of view of lifestyle, Mujica is light for theanti -corporate attitudeto the point of being called “the poorest president in the world”: in fact, he perceived one salary of about 800 euros monthly.
At the end of the mandate, Mujica refused to recover, and was replaced by her predecessor, Tabaré Vázquez. Senator until 2020, towards the end of the year yes retired to private life. He died on May 13, 2025 after a long fight against esophagus cancer.
The concept of Mujica’s “sobriety”
Mujica was a leftist man, but it was not prejudicially contrary to the capitalist systemconsidering only that it should be regulated. He thought that men should not think of profit but looking for happiness. For this purpose, he considered it indispensable to reduce consumption, supporting the concept of sobriety. As the last example of sobriety, his last will was to be buried under a sequoia planted by himself. How to say on the theme:
Sobriety is a very different concept from austerity, a term you have prostituted in Europe, cutting everything and leaving people without work. I I consume the necessary but I do not accept the waste. Because when I buy something I don’t buy it with money, but with the time of my life that served to earn them. And the time of life It is good towards which you have to be stingy. We must keep it for the things we like and motivate us. I call this time for yourself freedom. And if you want to be free you have to be sober in consumption.
Such ideas have guaranteed Mujica great popularity not only in Uruguay, but all over the world.
