CPIML pays heartfelt tribute to José “Pepe” Mujica, former President of Uruguay (2010–2015), leader of the leftist Broad Front and the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP), and a lifelong revolutionary inspired by the Cuban Revolution. Mujica was a guerrilla fighter with the Tupamaros movement who bravely opposed the U.S.-backed dictatorship that ruled Uruguay from 1973 to 1985, spending over a decade as a political prisoner. He passed away on May 13, 2025, at the age of 89.
As president, he defied the logic of neoliberalism by expanding social protections, strengthening the country’s trade unions, significantly bolstering minimum wages, and legalizing abortion, same-sex marriage, and cannabis. He also invested in renewable energy. Mujica shunned the trappings of power, lived in a modest farmhouse, and donated most of his salary to the poor, earning the love of the people and the title “the world’s humblest president.”
