José Mujica

José Mujica (2015)

José Alberto Mujica Cordano (born May 20, 1935 in Montevideo ), called El Pepe , is a Uruguayan politician and was President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 . He is a flower grower by profession.

Life

Mujica was born in the Barrio Paso de la Arena in western Montevideo to Demetrio Mujica and Lucy Cordano. His father, who later became an impoverished small estanciero , was of Basque origin. The Basque ancestors of Mujica came from the village of Muxika . Mujica's parents also had a daughter in 1940, Mujica's younger sister María Eudosia Mujica Cordano. She died on August 8, 2012 at the age of 71.

The father died early, José Mujica was in the third school year. A great-grandfather from a poor Italian family belonged to the aristocratic Blanco wing and was Edil (a political mandate holder in South America) in Colonia several times . Mujica's mother, born in Carmelo , was also a descendant of Italian immigrants, winegrowers from Piedmont who bought five hectares in Colonia Estrella in the Calera de las Huérfanas .

Mujica attended the “Escuela Nº 150” elementary school in his birth district from the age of six and later went to the “Liceo” ( high school level ). After completing the Liceo, he attended preparatory courses at the legal branch of the Instituto Alfredo Vázquez Acevedo (IAVA), but did not continue this training path .

Between the ages of 13 and 17, he cycled and took part in several races.

Because of his work in the guerrilla movement Movimiento de Liberación Nacional - Tupamaros , he spent 14 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement. He escaped twice.

Since 2005, Mujica has been married to MPP Senator Lucía Topolansky , with whom he has been in a relationship since the time he was released from prison as part of the amnesty of March 8, 1985. He also lives with her as president on his small farm (" Chacra ") in Rincón del Cerro near Montevideo, where the abdicated King Juan Carlos of Spain paid him a visit on the day he left the presidency . In his private life he still drives an old VW Beetle .

He kept only 10% of the monthly presidential salary of US $ 12,500  , which is why he was described as "the world's poorest president". He donates the rest to small businesses and NGOs . That is enough salary, he says, after all, many citizens live with even less. His wife also donates a large part of her income.

Mujica is committed to atheism .

Political career

Logo of the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional - Tupamaros

In his youth, Mujica was politically active in a group of the Partido Nacional in the environment of the then Labor and Industry Minister Enrique Erro . Together with Raúl Sendic and other companions, he then founded the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional -MLN- Tupamaros in the mid-1960s . Within this movement he belonged to the group called Los rehenes around the founder and leader Raúl Sendic and Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro . He was arrested for this activity. After democracy was restored in Uruguay in 1985, José Mujica was released from prison along with other Tupamaros. The Tupamaros founded the Movimiento de Participación Popular (MPP) party in 1989 .

Flag of the Frente Amplio party

In 1994 he was as a deputy for the department of Montevideo in the Cámara de Representantes chosen and 1999 as a senator. From February 15, 1995 to February 14, 2000 he was a member of the Frente Amplio in the Uruguayan House of Representatives, then from February 15, 2000 to February 14, 2005 for the party alliance Partido Encuentro Progesista / Frente Amplio, a member of the Uruguayan Senate . In 2004 he held the office of Third Vice President of the Senate. After his re-election, another term as senator followed as a representative of the Encuentro Progresista / Frente Amplio / Nueva Mayoría alliance. From his appointment by Tabaré Vázquez on March 1, 2005 to March 3, 2008, he held the office of Minister for Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries. Until his resignation on May 24, 2009, Mujica was the leader of the Movimiento de Participación Popular (MPP), the majority sector of the left-wing party alliance Frente Amplio.

In June 2009, Mujica, who called the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as his role model, was elected as a candidate for the left-wing alliance Frente Amplio for the presidential election. In the first round on October 25, 2009, he narrowly missed an absolute majority with 48 percent of the vote. In the runoff election on November 29, 2009, he achieved around 53 percent of the vote and thus prevailed against his conservative rival Luis Alberto Lacalle .

In October 2011, Mujica undertook an official ten-day trip to Europe for the first time in his role as President, during which he visited Sweden , Norway , Belgium and Germany .

In September 2013, Mujica gave a lengthy lecture on humanity and globalization at the United Nations General Assembly .

In August 2014, Mujica ruled out running as a candidate for the office of Intendente in Montevideo in the 2015 elections. In the elections in October 2014 , Mujica won a seat in the Uruguayan Senate with a clear majority.

Political positions

Over the years, Mujica developed pragmatic moves. Prior to his 2009 presidential election, the Guardian described him as a charismatic ex-guerrilla with a knack for insulting the rest of South America . At the same time, Mujica forged alliances with many other left-wing governments in South America of his time. He publicly supported the policies of Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and spoke out against Iran's international isolation .

A number of social policy measures fell during Mujica's tenure. He also started a diversification of the energy sector and began to reduce Uruguay's dependence on oil imports by expanding renewable energy sources. The highly controversial adoption of a law in Uruguay that legalized limited trade in cannabis caused an international stir . Uruguay was the first country in the world where the sale of limited quantities of cannabis in pharmacies to registered users is legal and where cultivation is to take place under state control. This even led to Mujica's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize .

At the end of his presidency in 2015, Uruguay was certified as having an economic and socio-political stability that its neighboring countries could only dream of .

In an interview for the Austrian daily Der Standard in 2015, Mujica described his political maxim based on his time as an activist of the underground Tupamaros movement :

“We wanted a perfect world. We wanted people to have more to eat, a roof over their heads, better health and education. Nothing is more beautiful than life, and right after that comes society. Man needs community. From an anthropological point of view, he is a socialist. "

Movies

• Tupamaros ( Rainer Hoffmann and Heidi Specogna , 1997). In the film, José Mujica and former colleagues tell the story of their movement.
• Pepe Mujica - The President ( Heidi Specogna , 2015). The film shows excerpts from the president's everyday life.
• Emir Kusturica is said to have worked on a film project (working title The Last Hero ) about "Pepes" departure from the presidency in Uruguay.
• Álvaro Brechner realized the film La noche de 12 años (Spain, Uruguay, France, Argentina 2018, 123 minutes) in 2018, which was shown at the film festivals in Venice, San Sebastian / Donostia and Huelva. In this film, José Mujica is played by the actor Antonio de la Torre Martín .
• El Pepe: A life at the highest level ( El Pepe, Una Vida Suprema) . From Emir Kusturica . 2018.

Web links

Commons : José Mujica  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ The father of his paternal grandmother.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Uruguay elects Jose Mujica as president, polls show BBC Online, November 30, 2009.
   Broad front for ex-guerrilla José Mujica as President Stern, November 30, 2009.
2. ↑ Volver a las raíces (Spanish) on montevideo.com.uy of May 18, 2015, accessed on May 18, 2015
3. ^ Fallció hermana de Mujica - Luto presidencial (Spanish) on montevideo.com.uy of August 8, 2012, accessed on August 9, 2012.
4. ^ Ex-guerrillas at the top of the state in Neues Deutschland , October 8, 2012.
5. ↑ El orgullo de haber sido (Spanish) on montevideo.com.uy of March 1, 215, accessed on March 1, 2015
6. ↑ ^{a b} Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president
7. ↑ Presidente mais pobre do mundo ainda anda de fusca e doa 90% do salário. Pragmatisimo, June 5, 2012, accessed March 8, 2014 (Brazilian Portuguese). 
8. ^ President of Uruguay comes out as an atheist ( memento of June 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Wissenrockt.de of May 19, 2012, accessed on June 7, 2012.
9. ↑ Ex-guerrilla who sought to overthrow state is now set to run it Irish Times, October 12, 2009.
10. ^ Jose Mujica | Biography & Facts . In: Encyclopedia Britannica . ( britannica.com [accessed August 31, 2018]).
11. ↑ List of Uruguayan parliamentarians from 1830 to 2005 on www.parlamento.gub.uy ( Memento of February 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 7.8 MB)
12. ↑ Presidente José Mujica Cordano ( Memento from October 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) - Curriculum on the website of the Uruguayan presidential office, accessed on October 8, 2012.
13. ↑ Mujica de la chacra a la Presidencia (Spanish) in La República from September 30, 2009.
14. ^ Ex-guerrillas at the head of state Neues Deutschland, December 1, 2009.
15. ↑ 75-year-old ex-guerrillero becomes new President Handelsblatt, November 30, 2009.
16. ↑ Uruguay: Press statements by Chancellor Merkel and President Mujica , Agencia Latina Press of October 19, 2011, accessed on December 11, 2011.
17. ^ Mujica in the UN General Assembly. El Observador , September 25, 2013, archived from the original on September 28, 2013 ; Retrieved September 29, 2013 . 
18. ↑ Vivir en la capital (Spanish) at www.montevideo.com.uy of August 24, 2014, accessed on August 25, 2014
19. ↑ Boris Herrmann: The lump of earth cedes. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 27, 2015, accessed March 1, 2015.
20. ^ Rory Carroll: Former guerrilla José Mujica favorite in Uruguay election. The Guardian, October 25, 2009, accessed July 15, 2020 . 
21. ↑ Mujica supports Lula da Silva government style and his Iran policy. mercopress.com, November 28, 2009, accessed July 15, 2020 . 
22. ↑ Rebecca Bertram: Uruguay, Latin America's Renewable Champion. energytransition.org, January 27, 2020, accessed on July 15, 2020 . 
23. ↑ Cannabis in Uruguay is now legal on www.fr-online.de from December 11, 2013, accessed on June 24, 2014
24. ↑ Uruguay's president nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for legalizing marijuana. RT , February 6, 2014, accessed on July 15, 2020 . 
25. ↑ Wyre Davies: Uruguay bids farewell to Jose Mujica, its pauper president. BBC News , March 1, 2015, accessed July 15, 2020 . 
26. ↑ Camilla Landbǿ: Pepe Mujica: "Maybe I'm a little anarchist". In: Der Standard , March 2, 2015.
27. ^ Deckert Distribution: Pepe Mujica
28. ^ Youtube: "El último héroe" se llama la película de Kusturica sobre Mujica : Contribution of the news portal 'Subrayado'.
29. ↑ José Mujica in the Internet Movie Database (English)
30. ↑ El Pepe: A Supreme Life. Retrieved February 6, 2020 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Martín Aguirrezabala	Minister of Agriculture of Uruguay March 1, 2005 to March 3, 2008	Ernesto Agazzi
Tabaré Vázquez	President of Uruguay March 1, 2010 to March 1, 2015	Tabaré Vázquez