Baby Mukica, former Uruguay president, removed a pompia from politics

José “Pepe” MUJICA did not have a great benefit to establish three -storey Uruguays, with its rich, elevator, marble stairs, and Louis XV furniture.

He told me last year: “It is nonsense.” “You must make it a secondary school.”

So when he became the head of the South American nation in 2010, Mr. Mogica decided that he would move from his home: a crowded cottage, three rooms in the size of a studio apartment, a wooden stove jam, loving book tanks, and a jewel of pickled vegetables.

before His death on TuesdayMr. Mugika lived there for decades Lifetime partnerLucia Tobolanski-former Vice President-their three-legged dogs, Manuella. They cultivated Chrysanthemms to sell it in the local markets and led Sky Blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle to their favorite tango bars.

It was a political blow. His presidency failed to achieve all its economic goals. But his lifestyle believing made him respected by many Uruguay to live like them, while giving him a platform in the international press to warn that greed was eroding society. He insisted that he was really how he wanted to live, but he also realized that he worked to clarify that politicians have long had very good.

“We have done everything possible to make the presidency less revered,” Mr. Mukica told a journalist in the New York Times in South America, Simon Romeroand In 2013And he shared with him a lot from his colleague, the herbal drink went back and forth in the conversation in this part of the world.

I visited Mr. Mujica at the same house last year. It was assembled in the winter coat and a wool cap in front of a wooden stove, weak and hardly being able to eat as a result of radiotherapy of the tumor in the esophagus. But in the face of a journalist who can spread his ideas to the world for the last times, the court held for about two hours, explaining how to find the purpose and beauty in life, and how he told me, “humanity, as is the case, is convicted.”

He also explained the reason for his belief that the decorations of the elected office – palaces, servants, Luxury aircraft It was the opposite of what was supposed to be democracy.

He said: “The remains of the cultural feudal feudalism – within the republic. “The president loves to build.”

Remember a visit to Germany while he was president. He said: “They put me in Mercedes -Benz. “I was shy.”

The international press was the title of “the poorest president” in the world, noting that his net wealth was 1800 dollars when he took office. Mr. Majika hated the title and is often quoted by the Romanian court Sinika: “It is not a very little man, but the man who is eager to more, this is poor.”

It will be difficult to find a more surprising contradiction with President Trump, who made life a central sect of his identity. In our interview, three months before the elections, Mr. Mukica prepared Mr. Trump again and again. “It looks like a lie – a country like the United States has a candidate like Trump,” he said. “Democracy is at the height of a wiped.”

Mr. Mujica entered politics in the sixties of the last century as a left -wing war warfare war. His group, Tubamaros, has gained a bad reputation for their violence. Mr. Mujica said they tried to avoid hurting civilians, but added that the left -wing conflict sometimes required strength.

After escaping from prison twice, he was imprisoned for 14 years under Uruguay’s military dictatorship, which is many of his sentences he spent in solitary confinement. He said he was trapped in a hole on the ground. Fracture To stay psychologically.

He was released as a democracy from Uruguay and eventually elected to Congress, he drew attention to the appearance of working on Vespa. In 2009, Voters From a nation of 3.3 million.

During the era of Mr. Majika, Uruguay pushed abortion to cancel her criminalization, sex marriage of the same sex, Renewable energy It became the first nation The entire legalization of marijuana. However, many of its goals, such as significantly reducing equality and improving education, have fallen victim to politics.

But as the news of his death spread on Tuesday, people around the world did not remember him about his policies. His humility was his legacy.

Earlier this year, he took his political protection, a former teacher in history named Yamand Ossi, the position of the new Uruguayan president. He exceeded to work from his family’s home, and the Uruguay Presidential Palace often remained empty.