MONTEVIDEO: Uruguay’s ex-president Jose Mujica, who at 89 is an icon for leftists across Latin America, hailed the return of the left to power in his country’s weekend elections as a “farewell gift.”

The ailing former guerrilla fighter — dubbed the world’s “poorest president” due to his humble lifestyle while in power — campaigned for president-elect Yamandu Orsi while recovering from esophageal cancer.

Orsi’s win, he said, was “something of a reward for me at the end of my career.” “It has something of a pleasant taste, a bit like a farewell gift,” he said in an interview late Thursday at his home down a dirt track in the countryside outside Urug­uay’s capital Montevideo.

Mujica became a standard-bearer for the global left during his 2010-2015 rule because of his modest lifestyle and progressive social policies.

On a continent that has seen generations of flamboyant strongman leaders, corruption scandals and human rights abuses, he gave away most of his salary, drove himself around in a Volkswagen Beetle, and made Uruguay the first country in the world to fully legalise cannabis for recreational use.

Orsi, a former history teacher seen as Mujica’s understudy, won back the presidency for the leftist Broad Front coalition in Sunday’s election run-off, ending five years of centre-right rule.

Uruguay is one of several South American countries to have swung left in recent years, along with Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The leaders of those countries are struggling with how to respond to the growing authoritarianism of the leftist presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2024