José Mujica, Leftist President of Uruguay Known for Humility, Dies at 89

Obituaries|José Mujica, Leftist President of Uruguay Known for Humility, Dies at 89

José Mujica, a former president of Uruguay, guerrilla fighter and stalwart of leftist leadership in Latin America, died on Tuesday. He was 89.

President Yamandú Orsi announced the death in a statement, which did not say where Mr. Mujica died or cite the cause. Mr. Mujica announced he had esophageal cancer in April 2024. He lived in the rural outskirts of Montevideo, the capital.

“President, comrade, mentor, leader. We’ll miss you,” Mr. Orsi wrote.

Known as Pepe, Mr. Mujica was elected president in 2009 at the age of 74 as a generation of leftist Latin American governments were losing their populist luster. Though he had a reputation as a savvy leader of Uruguay’s progressive coalition, his informal governing style baffled the establishment.

A self-described philosophical anarchist, he was known for his brash charisma, his skepticism of capitalism’s excesses, his modest way of life and his intent to inject purpose and humility into government during a time when Uruguay’s left was ascendant.

Although his ambitions were often bigger than his ability to deliver on policy promises, the progressive legislation that his administration did pass earned global praise and paved the way for a leftist ally to succeed him.

A flower farmer by trade, Mr. Mujica championed rural communities and was a consummate defender of liberal ideals. Believing world leaders should dispense with the trappings of power, he and his wife, Lucía Topolansky, a senator at the time, opted to live in a single-story home on a plot of farmland instead of on a staffed presidential estate. He sometimes drove to work in his pale blue 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.