“Pepe” Mujica’s lifelong pursuit of social justice!
Montevideo, May 13 (EFE).- By Alejandro Prieto
José “Pepe” Mujica, the former Uruguayan guerrilla fighter turned beloved president, died at age 89, leaving behind a legacy defined by simplicity, resilience, and a lifelong pursuit of social justice.
Born on May 20, 1934, in a modest neighborhood in Montevideo, Mujica rose from humble beginnings to become a global icon for his austere lifestyle and progressive ideals.
After losing his father at a young age, he was raised by his mother and grandfather, who taught him to cultivate and sell flowers, a trade he maintained even during his political rise.
Initially affiliated with the center-right National Party, Mujica shifted to the left during the 1960s.
Influenced by his travels to Cuba, the Soviet Union, and China, he eventually joined the Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla group inspired by the Cuban Revolution.
“We were born as a gigantic emotion to fight for equality,” Mujica once said, reflecting on the roots of his activism.
Mujica’s political path was shaped by a brutal chapter of repression. After engaging in armed resistance against Uruguay’s authoritarian rule, including bank robberies and high-profile kidnappings, he was imprisoned multiple times.
Shot six times during one encounter with police, he lost half a lung and endured 13 years of incarceration, much of it in solitary confinement.
“I was left with a mind eaten away behind bars,” he later confessed, referencing the psychological scars of his time in captivity.
Despite the suffering, he emerged from prison in 1985 following the end of Uruguay’s military dictatorship.
Two days later, he addressed a rally, urging unity on the left: “What matters most is what we contribute to the collective hive.”
A president like no other
In 2009, Mujica was elected president of Uruguay, becoming the first former guerrilla to hold the office. He served from 2010 to 2015, gaining international recognition not just for his policies, such as legalizing same-sex marriage, abortion, and cannabis, but for his radically humble way of life.
He donated most of his salary to housing programs, drove an old Volkswagen Beetle, and lived on a modest farm with his wife, fellow former guerrilla and senator Lucía Topolansky.
“I am not poor. Poor are those who want too much,” he famously said in response to the media labeling him “the world’s poorest president.”
His speeches, including a widely praised address at the United Nations, offered philosophical reflections rooted in both classical thought and Indigenous worldviews.
“Either you are happy with little and carry light luggage, because happiness is inside you, you get nowhere,” he declared.
A life of utopias
Even after leaving office and retiring from the Senate in 2020, Mujica remained an active political voice.
In 2024, he revealed he was being treated for esophageal cancer.
Yet, until the end, he continued to advocate for a more equitable and less superficial world.
Mujica’s life embodied the values he championed: resistance without bitterness, leadership without vanity, and dreams without borders.
As Uruguay mourns its most unorthodox leader, the world remembers a man who left with a “light suitcase,” but one filled with convictions, ideals, and enduring utopias. EFE apf/seo/mcd
