José 'Pepe' Mujica, the ex-president of Uruguay whose radical humility and progressive policies made him an international figure, passed away on May 13, 2025, at 89 years old. His death was announced by President Yamandú Orsi, who characterized Mujica as a "president, activist, guide, and leader" and expressed gratitude to him for his unshakeable love and dedication to the Uruguayan people. Mujica had been fighting esophageal cancer since the spring of 2024; when the cancer had spread to his liver, he opted to abandon treatment.
Mujica's life was a transformation, endurance, and uncompromising principle. Born on May 20, 1935, in Montevideo, he grew up in a working-class family that highly regarded hard work and humility. Mujica's mother, Lucy Cordano, was a flower seller who instilled his passion for politics and literature, while his father, Demetrio Mujica, was a travelling salesman.
In the radical 1960s, Mujica discovered his activism. Drawn to the Cuban Revolution and social injustice brewing in Uruguay, he became one of the leading members of the Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla movement committed to fighting the country's increasingly authoritarian government. Mujica became a leader in the movement, taking part in acts of defiance intended to redistribute wealth and bring government corruption to light. They landed him in numerous arrests, spectacular prison breaks, and a close brush with death from gunshot wounds during a police shootout.
Ultimately, Mujica spent close to 15 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement under Uruguay's military dictatorship. The brutal treatment and torture he underwent at his own hands left profound physical and mental scars but also impacted his strong commitment to justice and democratic ideals.
After democracy was reinstated in 1985, Mujica was freed from prison and redirected his revolutionary zeal to democratic politics. Mujica, a member of the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP), which fused with Uruguay's Broad Front, a left-of-center coalition, built a popular following by ascending the ranks by virtue of charisma, integrity, and popularity with the ordinary citizen. He was a deputy, senator, and minister before becoming president in 2009 at 74.
Mujica’s tenure as president lasted a single five-year term, as mandated by Uruguay’s constitutional term limits. He left an indelible mark on the nation’s social and political landscape during this period. He and his wife, Lucía Topolansky, herself a former revolutionary and respected politician, shared a life with no children of their own. Topolansky survives him, carrying forward their shared legacy of activism and public service.
Mujica enacted some of the region's most forward-thinking reforms during his presidency. He legalized gay marriage, legalized abortion, and, most famously, legalized and controlled the sale and use of recreational marijuana, becoming the first nation on earth to do so. These historic actions were part of Mujica's philosophy of individual liberty, social justice, and evidence-driven policymaking. His administration also preached environmental change and alternative energy sources, making economic activity active and eradicating poverty. Mujica's pragmatic approach as a leader was welcomed and criticized, but nobody questioned his commitment to the everyday Uruguayan's wellbeing.
It was not just Mujica's policies that made him unique, but his exceptional personal humility. He shunned the trappings of office, content to reside in a humble farmhouse just outside Montevideo instead of the presidential palace. He moved in a rusted-out old Volkswagen Beetle and gave almost 90% of his presidential stipend to charity, making him "the world's poorest president." Mujica scoffed dismissively at the appellation, maintaining that actual poor people were starved for many things and didn't know the nakedness of life. His ideology was built on simplicity, solidarity, and critical analysis of consumerism, which he believed was draining the life from the human soul and suppressing true happiness.
Mujica's legacy went far beyond Uruguay. He was appointed an international symbol of the left, respected for his integrity and the power to turn radical ideals into realpolitik, human policy. His United Nations and other foreign speeches urged a return to simplicity and re-focusing on what is truly of value in life.
Mujica frequently referred to the lessons he had learned behind bars, where he faced his limitations and discovered his strength in being with people. He was sure that leadership is service, not power, and one should be content with living for what one truly believes in. In his last interview, Mujica answered questions with philosophical musings, not political slogans. "Life is a beautiful adventure and a miracle", he stated. "We worry too much about money and not enough about happiness. We're so busy doing things that life has gone by before we know it."
Mujica's legacy lives on not just through the progressive policies of Uruguay but through the hundreds of lives he touched through his example of service and honesty. Even in retirement, Mujica was still a mentor and role model to rising leaders such as Yamandú Orsi, who took over as president. Orsi, who called Mujica's guidance a "farewell gift" to the country, continues to uphold the ideals of social justice and humility that Mujica exemplified.
Memorials flooded in from throughout Latin America and the globe after Mujica's death. Three days of mourning were declared by Uruguay, and up to an estimated 100,000 attended his state funeral in Montevideo. Mujica's remains were cremated and buried in his farmhouse, a fitting tribute to a man who died and lived in simplicity, with dignity, and with a strong sense of purpose.
