José Mujica

Uruguayan guerrilla fighter and politician · Uruguay · Politicians · Lived 1935 to 2025 · aged 89

José Mujica is read about 2,112 times a day, in 93 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

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A former guerrilla who spent 14 years in prison under dictatorship, then became president and gave away 90 percent of his salary. Mujica governed Uruguay from a farmhouse, wore old sweaters to summits, and called capitalism a trap that buries happiness under things no one needs.

Politicians Politician Politics 20th Century

A life in dates

2025Died13 May 2025Order of Francisco MorazánAward2022“That NATO advance makes no sense. It is going to lead us again to a division of the world.”In their wordsReferring to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Quoted in José Mujica habla así de Putin y augura qué va a pasar: alucinan hasta losRead the whole statement

2021Order of the Liberator General San MartínAward2020Senator of the República Oriental del UruguayOffice2018Poetry in the LaurelAward2017Grand Cross of Order of Manuel Amador GuerreroAward2016Order of the Flag of Republika SrpskaAward2014“Liberalism has the idea that democracy is its invention, that liberalism had to come about for democracy to exist...”In their words21 August 2014Quoted in: A conversation with President José Mujica, M.R. and H.C. Montevideo, The Economist , (21 August 2014)Read the whole statement

“Bourgeois democracy: I defend it and I criticise it. What do I criticise? That it promises a degree of equality that it does not fulfill in practice..”In their words21 August 2014Quoted in: A conversation with President José Mujica, M.R. and H.C. Montevideo, The Economist , (21 August 2014)Read the whole statement

“Locked up, I almost went mad... Now I'm a prisoner of my own freedom to think and decide as I wish. I cultivate that freedom and fight for it.”In their words27 May 2014Quoted in Uruguay's José Mujica: the 'humble' leader with grand ideas, Nicolas Bourcier and Christine Legrand, The Guardian, (27 May 2014)Read the whole statement

National Order of MeritAwardNational Order of San LorenzoAwardOrder of the Aztec EagleAwardPresident pro tempore of the Union of South American NationsOffice2014-20152012“I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more.”In their words15 November 2012Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president, Vladimir Hernandez BBC Mundo, (15 November 2012)Read the whole statement

“What are we thinking?...What would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household [as] Germans? How much oxygen would we have left?”In their words20 June 2012Human Happiness and the Environment - Address at the Rio +20 Summit, (20 June 2012)Read the whole statement

2011Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Sun of PeruAwardMedal of Honor of the Congress of the Republic of PeruAward2010National Order of MeritAwardPresident of UruguayOffice2010-20152005Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and FisheriesOffice2005-20081935Born20 May 1935

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

13.07.2023 - 59º Congresso da União Nacional dos Estudantes - UNE (53044654694) (cropped2)

MPP 609 Cosse

9974-32-310-X (46667368191)

Encuentro y reflexión sobre el Reglamento Agrario Artiguista (16901271824)

Entrega de galardon San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo a los ex presidentes Dr. Luis Alberto Lacalle y Jose Alberto Mujica - 20231213-dicimouyit17353

Firmamujica

Lacalle y Mujica - Candidatos presidenciales de Uruguay 2009

Repartidor listas MPP 2019

In their own words 10

José Mujica

10 statements, newest first

That NATO advance makes no sense. It is going to lead us again to a division of the world.
2022, Referring to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Quoted in José Mujica habla así de Putin y augura qué va a pasar: alucinan hasta los, Own words
Anyone who looks at a map to say that Venezuela could be a threat has to be quite mad. Venezuelans have a marvelous Constitution - the most audacious in all of Latin America.
Apr 3, 2015, Quoted in Why is the US So Frightened of Venezuela?, Maria Paez Victor, CounterPunch (3 April 2015), Own words
That (Guantanamo Bay detention camp) isn’t a prison.
Dec 8, 2014, Quoted in U.S. Transfers 6 Guantánamo Prisoners to Uruguay, Democracy Now! (8 December 2014), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Order of Francisco Morazán2025

Order of the Liberator General San Martín2021

Poetry in the Laurel, Ayuntamiento de La Zubia2018

Grand Cross of Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero2017

Order of the Flag of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik2016

National Order of Merit2014

National Order of San Lorenzo2014

Order of the Aztec Eagle2014

Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Sun of Peru2011

Medal of Honor of the Congress of the Republic of Peru2011

National Order of Merit2010

In their orbit

Spouse: Lucía Topolansky

About this person

José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano was born 20 May 1935 in Uruguay. He joined the Tupamaros, a revolutionary guerrilla movement, and was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s. After democracy returned, he entered politics with the Broad Front coalition, serving as minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008, then as a senator. He won the 2009 presidential election and took office 1 March 2010. His administration legalized marijuana, abortion, and same-sex marriage, and strengthened trade unions and minimum wages. He died 13 May 2025.

Country

Uruguay

In common with José

Caco CioclerAlso in Partida (2019)

Christian BrücknerAlso in Tupamaros (1997)

Heidi SpecognaAlso in Tupamaros (1997)

Politicians from Uruguay 3

Álvaro Delgado Ceretta62.5

Yamandú Orsi61.2

Tabaré Vázquez58.0

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