{"id":137322,"date":"2025-05-13T21:25:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/jose-pepe-mujica-former-guerrilla-and-ex-president-of-uruguay-dies-aged-89-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T21:25:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:25:54","slug":"jose-pepe-mujica-former-guerrilla-and-ex-president-of-uruguay-dies-aged-89-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/jose-pepe-mujica-former-guerrilla-and-ex-president-of-uruguay-dies-aged-89-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 \u2018Pepe\u2019 Mujica, former guerrilla and ex-president of Uruguay, dies aged 89 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a final interview, Mujica said: \u2018We are too focused on wealth and not on happiness \u2026 Before you know it, life has passed you by\u2019
Uruguay<\/a>\u2019s former president Jos\u00e9 Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerrilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died. He was 89.
His death was announced by the current Uruguayan president. Yamand\u00fa Orsi. In a post on social media platform X, Orsi called Mujica a \u201cpresident, activist, guide and leader\u201d. Mujica had been under treatment for cancer<\/a> of the esophagus since spring 2024, when the disease was diagnosed.
Even as the treatment left him weak and hardly able to eat, Mujica reappeared on the political stage in fall of 2024, campaigning for his leftwing coalition in national elections that vaulted his preferred candidate and protege, Orsi, to the presidency<\/a>.
In September of 2024, his doctor reported that radiation had succeeded in eliminating much of Mujica\u2019s tumor. But in January of 2025, his doctor announced that the cancer in his esophagus had returned and spread to his liver. His autoimmune disease and other underlying medical problems led Mujica to decide not to pursue further treatment.
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m dying<\/a>,\u201d Mujica told weekly magazine B\u00fasqueda in what he said would be his final interview. \u201cA warrior has the right to rest.\u201d
During his 2010-2015 presidency, Mujica, widely known as \u201cPepe\u201d, oversaw the transformation of his small South American nation into one of the world\u2019s most socially liberal democracies. He earned admiration at home and cult status abroad for legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, enacting the region\u2019s first sweeping abortion rights law and establishing Uruguay<\/a> as a leader in alternative energy.
He sparked global fascination by shunning the presidential palace<\/a> to live in a tiny farmhouse and donating most of his salary to charity.
In the 1960s, he co-founded the Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla movement Tupamaros, which started out robbing from the rich to give to the poor but later escalated its campaign to kidnappings, bombings and assassinations.
During those years, Mujica lived a life of derring-do. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds and took part in a mass prison breakout.
But when the Tupamaros collapsed in 1972, he was recaptured and spent all of Uruguay\u2019s 1973-1985 dictatorship in prison, where he was tortured and spent years in solitary confinement.
After his release, he threw himself into politics and in 1989 founded the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP), the largest member of the leftist Broad Front coalition.
Elected to Congress in 1995, he became a senator in 2000 and then agriculture minister in Uruguay\u2019s first-ever leftwing government.
He served just one five-year term as president, in line with Uruguay\u2019s term limits.
Mujica had no children and is survived by his wife, Luc\u00eda Topolansky, another former militant.
In his final interview, Mujica repeatedly answered interview questions with philosophical aphorisms.
\u201cLife is a beautiful adventure and a miracle,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are too focused on wealth and not on happiness. We are focused only on doing things and \u2013 before you know it \u2013 life has passed you by.\u201d
Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a final interview, Mujica said: \u2018We are too focused on wealth and not on happiness \u2026 Before you know it, life has passed you by\u2019Uruguay\u2019s former president Jos\u00e9 Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerrilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}