One-time guerrilla and subsequent Uruguayan president Jose Musica drove the Beat Up VW Beetle and enacted progressive reforms that introduced him a repute properly past South America, however died on the age of 89.
The straight discuss Musica, recognized to many Uruguayans by his nickname “Pepe,” led the left-wing authorities of small agricultural nations from 2010 to 2015 after convincing voters that his previous previous was a closed chapter.
Former Uruguayan President Jose Musica publicizes esophageal most cancers analysis
“It is a deep unhappiness that we announce the demise of our comrade Pepe Musica,” President Yamandu Orsi mentioned in a submit in X.
As president, Musica adopted what was a pioneering liberal angle in direction of points associated to civil liberty. He signed a regulation permitting homosexual marriage and abortions early in being pregnant, supporting the proposal to legalize the sale of marijuana. Gay marriage and abortion measures have been a significant change for Catholic Latin America, and the marijuana motion was nearly unprecedented all over the world on the time.
Regional leaders, together with left-wing presidents in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, lamented Musica’s demise and praised his instance.
“He defended democracy like the opposite few, and he by no means stopped defending social justice and for the top of all inequality,” mentioned Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Musica’s “greatness transcended the boundaries of Uruguay and his presidential time period,” he added.
During his time in workplace, Musica refused to maneuver to the presidential residence and selected to remain in a modest house with a small flower farm on the outskirts of the capital, Montevid.
It was frequent to observe him drive beetles and eat at a downtown restaurant the place an workplace employee had lunch, avoiding his formal go well with and tie.
People collect outdoors the Movimiento de Prationacion Popular (MPP) celebration headquarters after the demise of former Uruguayan President Jose “Pepe” Musica, age 89, in Montevid, Uruguay on May 13, 2025.
In a May 2024 interview with Reuters at a tin roof home that Musica shared together with his spouse, former Senator Lucia Topolansky, he mentioned he had an outdated beetle and it was nonetheless in a “superficial” state.
However, he added that he prefers tractor turns, saying it is a “humorous” place than a automobile and a spot the place “you may have time to consider it.”
Critics questioned the tendency for Musica to interrupt down with protocols, however his boring, typically despicable statements have been compelled to elucidate himself below strain from his enemies and political allies.
However, it was his sensible model and progressive meditation that made him like to many Uruguayans.
“The drawback is that the world is run by outdated individuals who neglect what they have been like after they have been youthful,” Musica mentioned in a 2024 interview.
Musica herself was 74 years outdated when she grew to become president. He was chosen in 52% of the vote within the Sixties and Seventies regardless of voter issues about his age and previous as one of many leaders of the Tupamaros insurgent group.
Lucia Topolansky is a long-term associate at Mujica, courting again to her days at Tupamaros. The couple married in 2005 and served as vice chairman from 2017 to 2020.
After leaving workplace, they grew to become politically lively, frequently attending the inauguration of Latin American presidents, giving vital assist to Uruguayan candidates, together with Orsi, who took workplace in March 2025.
Behind the bar
Jose Musica’s delivery certificates recorded him as being born in 1935, however he claimed that he had an error and was really born a yr in the past. He as soon as described his upbringing as “dignified poverty.”
Musica’s father died when he was 9 or ten years outdated, and as a boy he helped his mom preserve the farm the place he grew flowers and had chickens and some cows.
When Musica grew to become fascinated by politics, the left wing of Uruguay was weakly damaged and he started his political profession with the progressive wing of the Central Right Nationalist Party.
In the late Sixties he joined the Marxist Tupamaros Guerrilla Movement. This sought to undermine Uruguay’s conservative authorities via theft, political inviting and bombing.
Musica later mentioned he by no means killed anybody and was concerned in a number of violent clashes between police and troopers, and was as soon as shot six instances.
Uruguayan safety forces surpassed Tupamaros by the point the army got here to energy within the 1973 coup, marking the start of a 12-year dictatorship, during which round 200 individuals have been invited and killed. Thousands extra have been imprisoned and tortured.
Musica spent nearly 15 years behind the bar. Many have been trapped in solitary cells, mendacity on the backside of an outdated horse valley, with solely firm ants. He was in a position to escape twice by tunneling to a close-by home. His largest “large” when he approaches 90, later mentioned, speaking to himself, hinting at his time in isolation.
When democracy recovered to an agricultural nation of about 3 million in 1985, Musica was launched, returned to politics, regularly changing into a outstanding determine on the left.
He served as Minister of Agriculture within the Central Left Union of President Tabare Vasquez.
Musica’s assist base was on the left, however he maintained a fluid dialogue with enemies on the fitting facet of the centre and invited him to a standard barbecue at house.
“We cannot faux to agree with every thing. We need to agree with one thing, not one thing we like,” he mentioned.
He believed that medicine must be decriminalized below “strict situation management” and that habit must be addressed.
“I do not defend drug use. But I can not defend myself as a result of we’ve two points which are sick drug habit and narco trafficking and, worse nonetheless, I can not defend (prohibited),” he mentioned.
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During his retirement, he remained determinedly optimistic.
“I need to inform all younger those that life is gorgeous, but it surely’s exhausting and you may fall,” he mentioned following the most cancers analysis.
“The level is to strive once more each time you collapse, and when you have anger, flip it into hope.”