José Mujica

José Alberto Mujica Cordano, known as Pepe, was a Uruguayan politician, revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s. A member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, he was minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and then a senator, and as the Broad Front candidate he won the 2009 presidential election and took office on 1 March 2010. His administration carried out progressive policies including the decriminalization of abortion, the legalization of marijuana consumption and the legalization of same-sex marriage, and it strengthened trade unions and raised minimum wages. In office he was described as the world's poorest president because of his austere lifestyle and his donation of around 90 percent of his monthly salary to charities supporting low-income people and small entrepreneurs. He was an outspoken critic of capitalism. He was born on 20 May 1935 and died on 13 May 2025.