José Mujica, the former Progressive Uruguayan President, has Died

May 14, 2025

Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, one of the most important and respected leaders of the Latin American left, has died after a long battle with esophageal cancer according to a statement released Tuesday by the current president of the South American country, Yamandú Orsi.

“It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica,” Orsi wrote on his Twitter account. “President, activist, role model, and leader, we will miss you dearly, dear old friend. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people,” he added.

From guerrilla fighter to president

Born in Montevideo in 1935, ‘El Pepe’ Mujica, as he was popularly known, represented an unusual facet of politics, having come a long way from participating in the guerrilla movement in the 1970s—which cost him 12 years in prison—to winning democratic elections. He established himself as a president without a university degree who never enriched himself or sought to use the privileges of power.

In 2010, after taking office, he did not even want to move into the elegant presidential residence. Unconcerned with protocol, he chose to live in his simple home alongside his wife, Lucía Topolanski, another historic, fundamental, and highly recognized figure in regional politics. They never owned property, assets, luxury cars, or large bank accounts. There was never a single suspicion of corruption.

“I am not poor, I am sober, light of luggage. I like to live with just enough so that things do not rob me of my freedom,” he used to say to refute the compliments about the humility with which he lived and which had earned him the label of “the poorest president in the world.”

Mujica also distinguished himself by always declaring himself an atheist, an identity that set him apart from other Latin American leaders who swear on Bibles, go to Mass, pray, and ask God to help them govern.

Thanks in part to these convictions, which were far removed from any religious pressure, he promoted the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage.

But if there was one thing that surprised people about this former guerrilla fighter, it was his unprecedented boldness in countering entrenched global drug policies to make Uruguay the first country to legalize the production, sale, and consumption of marijuana.

In doing so, he made the world look again, whether with amazement, skepticism, or admiration, at a “little country”—as writer Eduardo Galeano affectionately called it—with just over three million inhabitants nestled on the southern Atlantic coast.

It attracted so much attention that Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica wanted to tell his story in a documentary entitled ‘El Pepe: una vida suprema’ (Pepe: A Supreme Life), which premiered in 2018 at the Venice Film Festival.

The anticipation surrounding the film demonstrated the interest in learning about a president who, three years earlier, had left office with a record approval rating of 65%.

A life of activism on the left

Mujica became involved in activism as a teenager. That is why, at the age of 21, he decided to give up his studies altogether to join the National Party, a force that was emerging to counter the Colorado Party, which had ruled the country for almost a century.

But the White Party was more right-wing, and Mujica felt more ideologically aligned with the left, so in the early 1960s, he joined the new Popular Union.

It didn’t last long, as in 1964 he joined the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros, the extreme left-wing guerrilla group that identified with the Cuban Revolution and sought to seize power by force at a time when the country was suffering from instability, with a succession of collegial governments, a serious economic crisis, growing social protests, and repression.

The Tupamaros began to gain international attention through kidnappings, executions, bombings, and bank robberies committed to finance their activities. Mujica and the rest of the guerrillas participated in these acts.

In the 1971 presidential elections, left-wing organizations created the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) and its candidate, Líber Seregni, won 18% of the vote. It seemed that the nascent two-party system between the White Party and the Colorado Party was breaking down.

The results, however, were marred by fraud that, as was proven three decades later, was organized by the US and handed victory to Juan María Bordaberry (Colorado Party), the president who in 1973 would lead a self-coup that would usher in a succession of military regimes that ruled until 1985.

It was precisely during Bordaberry’s government (1972-1976) that Mujica was imprisoned for the fourth time along with the rest of the Tupamaros leadership. This time it would be for good. Unlike on previous occasions, he was unable to escape from prison.

Imprisonment and return

For 12 years, Mujica became a hostage of the dictatorship. His arrest had been extrajudicial and he was never tried or charged with any formal offense, so he was more a victim of kidnapping.

With the guerrilla movement defeated, the Tupamaros were subjected to constant torture and abuse until, at the dawn of democracy in 1985, they were granted amnesty and released from prison.

Mujica laid down his arms and returned to politics. He joined the Frente Amplio, a coalition of progressive forces formed in the early 1970s, and in 1995 he won his first elected office, winning a seat in the Chamber of Representatives.

As a congressman, Mujica began to play a more prominent role in the country’s public life. His guerrilla past did not prevent him from gaining increasing leadership and popularity, while the Frente Amplio grew stronger and the two-party system created by the National Party and the Colorado Party began to fade.

In 1999, Mujica became a senator. That year, the FA candidate, Tabaré Vázquez, made it to the second round against Jorge Batlle (Colorado Party). Although he did not win, it seemed that it was only a matter of organization and time before the left would reach the presidency. And so it was. In 2004, Vázquez won decisively in the first round with 51.6% of the vote.

It was the heyday of progressive governments in the region, with Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández (Argentina); Evo Morales (Bolivia); Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil); Rafael Correa (Ecuador); Fernando Lugo (Paraguay); and Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) all in power.

In 2010, Mujica would join this select group.

Government and legacy

In 2010, Mujica would join this select group, when he won the 2009 presidential election in a second round with 54.6% of the vote.

At 74, he established himself as a disheveled leader, uninterested in protocol or political correctness, but also pragmatic and far removed from the ideological extremism that had marked his early days.

After more than four decades, his transition from guerrilla fighter and political prisoner under a dictatorship to democratic leader was complete.

But he still had surprises in store. In 2012, when no one expected it, Mujica promoted an end to prejudice and the legalization of the production, sale, and consumption of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes. That is, the entire commercial circuit of a plant that continues to be stigmatized. No country had dared to go so far.

It was a risky move, as it broke with the US-imposed war on drugs, and the project was not supported by the majority of Uruguayans. The intense social debate that erupted in Uruguay attracted worldwide attention.

“It’s not nice to legalize marijuana, but it’s worse to hand people over to the drug traffickers. There is no good addiction, except for love,” he said in one of the many famous quotes with which he defended an initiative that was finally approved in late 2013 and changed the parameters of the war on drugs worldwide.

It was not the only controversy. In 2011, Mujica revived the legalization of abortion, which his predecessor, Tabaré Vázquez, had vetoed despite 60% of the population supporting the measure.

A year later, Uruguay became the second country in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Cuba, to legalize voluntary termination of pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation, or later if the pregnancy was the result of rape.

The innovative and progressive nature of Mujica’s government with regard to civil rights was consolidated in 2013, when the equal marriage law came into force, allowing same-sex couples to marry. At that time, it had only been approved in Argentina in the region.

Farewell

In 2014, the Uruguayan left won its third consecutive general election, allowing Mujica to hand back the presidential sash to Tabaré Vázquez, the leader of the Frente Amplio who was running for re-election that year.

Mujica then returned to the Senate, where he remained until 2020, when he resigned his seat and ended his political career due to the Covid pandemic.

He was 85 at the time, so he chose to devote himself to farming and gardening on his ranch with his wife, Lucía Topolansky, a former Tupamaro guerrilla and political prisoner who, like Mujica, became one of the country’s most important leaders. In addition to being a senator, in 2017 she became the first woman to hold the vice presidency in Uruguay.

But the former president never completely withdrew from public life. Whether through interviews or international trips, especially in Latin America, he remained one of the most popular and respected political figures in the region.

Source: RT