Pepe Mujica, the humble philosopher president, dies

Buenos AiresThe popular former Uruguayan president José Pepe Mujica died today at the age of 89, a victim ofesophageal cancer, according to the country's president, Yamandú Orsi. "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the death of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, leader, and leader," Orsi wrote in X.

"How would you like to be remembered?" Mujica was asked in a 2022 interview. "I'm not even worried," he replied. "We think we're important, and we're not even a grain of sand in the magnitude of the Universe," he reflected. "I don't know why we should be more important than ants: ants have been on Earth for millions of years, and they'll probably be there after us." It's possible that José Pepe Mujica, or simply Pepe, as he is affectionately known in Uruguay, may be remembered as he has often been called: "the humblest head of state in the world." Former President of Uruguay (2010-2015) He renounced the privileges of his office and lived, while he was president and until the end of his days, in a simple house on the outskirts of Montevideo, with his partner, Lucía Topolansky, whom he met as young people in political activism. Mujica has preached and practiced austerity in favor of freedom: "I am not poor, I am sober, I am sober." freedom."

José Alberto Mujica Cordano was born on May 20, 1935, in Montevideo, to a working-class family of Basque and Italian descent. His father died when he was only 6 years old. He completed primary and secondary school at the neighborhood public school, where he began high school but never finished. He began his political career in the National Party, the oldest party in Latin America, and eventually led the party's youth wing, although he later left to create the Popular Union, in collaboration with the Socialist Party in 1962. In the mid-1960s, Mujica joined the Tupamaros (National Liberation Movement), a group of Tupamaros that fought against the military dictatorship (1973–1985). Mujica spent 14 years in prison – "The night they gave me a mattress, I felt comfortable," he would say – and, as he has explained on several occasions, the loneliness of those years taught him "that if you can't be happy with a few things, you won't be happy with many things."

With the return of democracy and protected by an amnesty law, Mujica was released and co-founded, with other former guerrillas, the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) within the Broad Front, a political coalition of socialist, Marxist, and communist bent that also brings together liberal and democratic movements. 9 Mujica was elected deputy for Montevideo and began his parliamentary activity. Five years later, he was elected senator. Gradually, his movement gained support until it became the leading force within the Broad Front, which won the elections in 2004. He was admirable in capitalizing on public discontent and engaging in dialogue with them. He was characterized by an approachable nature, with some outbursts that were widely interpreted as a frank and outspoken attitude. Cristina Fernández, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner.

In June 2009, Mujica won the Frente Amplio's internal elections to run as a candidate, and in October he won the election with 54% of the vote. His inauguration was attended by Hillary Clinton, Hugo Chávez, and then-Prince Felipe, among other notables. "It's good in life to remember that no one is more than anyone else, and to know that governing is about building teams," he said in his speech.

Fight against poverty

During his term, Mujica significantly reduced poverty in Uruguay, reaching the lowest level of inequality in the country's history. He also decentralized higher education with the creation of a technical university and more than 15,000 homes in areas of extreme poverty. During his term, Mujica donated 90% of his salary to social organizations to combat poverty, and in social policies, he legalized same-sex marriage, decriminalized abortion, and legalized regulated marijuana. "It's worse to give people away to drug trafficking. The only healthy addiction is love," he said.

Pepe Mujica, who loved nature since childhood and cultivated the hobby of caring for plants and flowers, often recalled in conversations with journalists that "human life is a miracle," and that the most important thing is to ask yourself "how you spend your life's time," because if you don't ask yourself, he said, you'll be told and take care of things until you're a destroyed old man. The philosopher president defended human relationships – friendship, love, family – as what keeps us focused and meaningful, and he often repeated that "affections take time, and they're the only thing we'll take with us." Quoting the indigenous Aymar people, Pepe Mujica subscribed to the idea that "the poor are those who have no community."