A Simple, Humble President

Get to know one of the quirkiest heads of state in the world: Jose Mujicam, the President of Uruguay.

When he was about 30 in the mid-1960s, Jose Mujica joined the MLB-Tupamaros, a left-wing guerrilla group in his native Uruguay formed to take down the government of president Jorge Pacheco Areco, who suspended civil liberties and instituted economic freezes. For his role in raids and captures on towns, Mujica eventually and in total served 13 years in prison, two of it in solitary confinement. He was freed in 1985 and got into politics, joining the Uruguayan senate (as a moderate) in 1994. He was elected president of Uruguay in 2009.


As one of his first acts as president, Mujica instituted an overhaul of laws that led to the legalization of marijuana. That allowed federal resources to be redirected to fighting the influx of harder drugs from neighboring Paraguay.


While he’s now president, and more moderate, Mujica still identifies as the same common man he was when he was a guerrilla. For example, he chooses not to live in the country’s official residence, but in a small, rundown farm on the outskirts of the national capital of Montevideo owned by his wife. Roughly 75 percent of his $11,000 monthly salary he donates to charity.


Mujica claims his only “real” possession is his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. He doesn’t hold on to it out of sentimental attachment (which he doesn’t really believe in), only because he needed something to drive around Manuela, his three-legged dog.


A sheikh reportedly offered Mujica $1 million for the car. He hasn’t decided if he’ll sell yet, but if he does, he’s promised he’ll donate the money to a government program that builds houses for the homeless.

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