José Mujica, Uruguay’s humble president who modified his nation and charmed the world, dies at 89

Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, a one-time Marxist guerrilla and flower farmer whose model of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and easy life-style fascinated individuals world wide, has died. He was 89.

His dying was introduced by Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi. In a put up on social media platform X, Orsi known as Mujica a “president, activist, information and chief.”Mujica had been below remedy for most cancers of the esophagus since spring 2024, when the affliction was identified.

Even because the remedy left him weak and hardly capable of eat, Mujica reappeared on the political stage in fall of 2024, campaigning for his left-wing coalition in nationwide elections that vaulted his most well-liked candidate and protégé, Orsi, to the presidency.

In September of 2024, his physician reported that radiation had succeeded in eliminating a lot of the tumor. However in January of 2025, Mujica’s physician introduced that the most cancers in his esophagus had returned and unfold to his liver. His autoimmune illness and different underlying medical issues led Mujica to resolve to not pursue additional remedy.

“Truthfully, I am dying,” Mujica advised weekly journal Busqueda in what he stated can be his last interview. “A warrior has the suitable to relaxation.”

Throughout his 2010-2015 presidency, Mujica, extensively generally known as “Pepe,” oversaw the transformation of his small South American nation into one of many world’s most socially liberal democracies. He earned admiration at house and cult standing overseas for legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, enacting the area’s first sweeping abortion rights regulation and establishing Uruguay as a frontrunner in various power.