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Former Uruguay President and iconic leader of the center-left Broad Front José “Pepe” Mujica died on Tuesday, May 13 age 89. Mujica’s health had taken a turn for the worse in early January when the esophageal cancer he had been in treatment for during 2024 spread to the rest of his body and compromised his liver.
The leftist leader announced that his health had worsened on January 9. “I’m dying,” he said at the time, while also requesting that he be allowed to spend the final portion of his life in peace.
“A warrior is entitled to his rest,” he remarked.
Mujica, the leader of the party Movimiento de Participación Popular of President Yamandú Orsi, said he had asked doctors not to make him “suffer in vain.” “Drug me up, and when it’s time to die, I die. It’s that simple,” he said. He expressed his desire to be laid to rest on his farm, Rincón del Cerro (Corner of the Hill), under a large sequoia he planted himself. Mujica was buried next to his famed dog, Manuela.
The former president and senator said he wished to bid farewell to his countrymen.
“It’s easy to respect those that think like you, but we must learn that the foundation of democracy is respect for those who think differently. Because of that, my countrymen are in the first category, and to them I say farewell. I hug you all,” he said.
Mujica announced that he had esophageal cancer in April 2024 and quickly underwent radiotherapy, the only available treatment option considering his two chronic conditions.
Even though the treatment left him “devastated” — he was admitted three times to the hospital over a ten-day period in early September — the former president was very present during the campaign that finally resulted in a historic win for Orsi in November 2024. Mujica kept his promise of being politically active to the end by appearing in rallies, but also by conducting interviews and appearing in political ads shot on his farm.
The life of ‘Pepe’ Mujica
Mujica served as President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. He was considered one of the most progressive leaders in Latin America, even amongst fellow leftist presidents of the region. His government became a global trailblazer in the struggle for individual rights by becoming one of the first to pass laws legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage, while also regulating legal cannabis use.
His career as a professional politician began in 1989 when he was elected first as a deputy and then as a senator for the Broad Front. He served as Minister of Cattle, Agriculture, and Fishing during the first Tabaré Vázquez administration from 2005 to 2008. Mujica was elected to the Senate after finishing his presidential term and subsequently reelected, but he resigned in the midst of his second term in October 2020.
“The pandemic kicked me out,” he said, referencing Covid-19 and the fact that he was forced to be diligent with his health during that time due to an autoimmune disease he suffered, which also created complications for his cancer treatment.
His political activity began many years before as an activist for the National Liberation Movement — Tupamaro (MLN-T, for its Spanish acronym). Together with his wife, Lucía Topolansky, he was incarcerated from 1972 to 1985 during the civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay.
“I would bathe with a glass of water and a sponge like people in the desert. I was in absolute solitude, with only a few family members coming to visit once a month, my mother especially. It was very rough,” he recalled in an interview many years later.
Mujica acknowledged that his incarceration taught him to “not let yourself be dominated by anger and fanaticism and understand that certain scores are left unsettled and you have to move on.”
This moderate vision regarding the dictatorship, which led to his government passing an expiry law granting a form of amnesty to military members accused of committing crimes against humanity during the Uruguayan dictatorship, was heavily criticized by family members of the disappeared.
Originally published in Ámbito Uruguay
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