José Mujica, a former guerrilla and later president of Uruguay who drove an old Volkswagen Beetle and implemented progressive reforms that made him famous far beyond South America, has died at the age of 89.
Direct in his speech, Mujica, known to many Uruguayans by his nickname Pepe, led the leftist government of this small agricultural country from 2010 to 2015, after convincing voters that his radical past was a done deal, Reuters recalls.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our comrade Pepe Mujica,” President Yamandu Orsi wrote on the X network. “Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people.”
As president, Mujica took a pioneering liberal stance on civil liberties. He signed legislation allowing same-sex marriage and early abortion, and supported a proposal to legalize the sale of marijuana. Reuters points out that the same-sex marriage and abortion measures represented a major turning point for Catholic Latin America, while the legalization of marijuana was almost unprecedented at the time on a global scale.
Regional leaders, including the leftist presidents of Brazil, Chile and Mexico, expressed regret over Mujica's death and paid tribute to him.
“He defended democracy like few others. And he never stopped advocating for social justice and the end of all inequalities,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He added that Mujica’s “greatness transcended the borders of Uruguay and his presidential term.”
During his presidency, Mujica refused to move into the official presidential residence, choosing to remain in his modest home, where he maintained a small flower farm in the suburbs of Montevideo.
He avoided wearing formal suits and ties and it was common to see him driving his Beetle or having lunch at city restaurants frequented by office workers.
In a May 2024 interview with Reuters, given in the tin-roofed house he shared with his wife, former senator Lucia Topolanski, he said he still owned the old Beetle and that it was still in “phenomenal” condition.
However, he added that he prefers driving a tractor, saying it's "more fun than a car" and that it's a place where "you have time to think."
Critics have challenged Mujica's frequent departure from protocol, while his direct and occasionally harsh statements have sometimes required further explanations, under pressure from both political opponents and allies.
But it was his down-to-earth style and reflections on progressive topics that won the sympathy of many Uruguayans.
“The problem is that the world is run by old people who have forgotten what they were like when they were young,” Mujica said in an interview in 2024.
Mujica himself was 74 years old when he became president. He was elected with 52% of the vote, despite concerns among some voters about his age and his past as one of the leaders of the Tupamaros rebel group in the 1960s and 1970s.
“The problem is that the world is run by old people who have forgotten what they were like when they were young,” Mujica said in an interview in 2024.
Lucija Topolanski was Mujica's longtime partner, dating back to their days as Tupamaros. They married in 2005, and she served as vice president from 2017 to 2020.
After leaving politics, they remained politically active - regularly attending the inaugurations of Latin American presidents and providing key support to candidates in Uruguay, including Orsi, who took office in March 2025.
According to his birth certificate, José Mujica was born in 1935, although he claimed there was a mistake and that he was actually born a year earlier. He once described his upbringing as “dignified poverty.”
Mujica's father died when he was 9 or 10 years old, and as a boy he helped his mother maintain the property where they raised flowers, chickens, and a few cows.
At the time Mujica became interested in politics, the Uruguayan left was weak and divided, and he began his political career in the progressive wing of the center-right National Party. In the late 1960s, he joined the Marxist guerrilla movement Tupamaros, which sought to weaken the conservative Uruguayan government through looting, political kidnappings, and bombings.
Mujica later said that he had never killed anyone, but that he had participated in several violent clashes with the police and the military, and that on one occasion he was shot with six bullets.
By the time the military staged a coup in 1973, Uruguay's security forces had gained the upper hand over the Tupamaros. A 12-year dictatorship followed, during which some 200 people were kidnapped and killed, while thousands more were imprisoned and tortured.
Mujica spent nearly 15 years behind bars, much of it in solitary confinement, where his only company were ants. He managed to escape twice, once by digging a tunnel to a nearby house. He later said that his “greatest vice” was talking to himself, alluding to the years spent in isolation.
When democracy was restored in this agricultural country of about 1985 million people in 3, Mujica was released and returned to politics, gradually becoming one of the most prominent figures of the Uruguayan left.
He was Minister of Agriculture in the government of his predecessor, President Tabaré Vázquez, from the center-left coalition, whom he later succeeded and held the presidency from 2015 to 2020.
Mujica's support base was on the left, but he maintained an open dialogue with opponents from the center and center-right, often inviting them to traditional barbecues at his home.
"We can't pretend to agree on everything. We have to agree on what we can do, not what we would like to do," he said.
He believed that drugs should be decriminalized "under strict state control" and addiction should be seriously addressed.
"I'm not advocating drug use. But I can't advocate prohibition, because now we have two problems: drug addiction, which is a disease, and drug trafficking, which is even worse," he said.
In retirement, he remained a determined optimist.
"I want to tell all young people that life is beautiful, but it wears out and you fall," he said after his cancer diagnosis.
“The thing is, every time you fall, you get up again. And if there is anger, turn it into hope.”
Bonus video:
