everything about the poorest and fairest president of Uruguay Jose Alberto part 2
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00:00Everything About The Poorest And Fairest President Of Uruguay, José Alberto His Life And Everything
00:06About Him Part 2
00:09We continue to tell a stage of the life of the Rashidun Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab.
00:15Mujica has drawn worldwide attention for his simple lifestyle.
00:19He has used a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle and his 60-year-old bicycle as means of transportation.
00:25In 2010, the value of the car was $1,800 and represented the entirety of the mandatory
00:31annual personal wealth declaration filed by Mujica for that year.
00:36In November 2014, the Uruguayan newspaper Biscueta reported that he had been offered
00:41$1 million for the car.
00:43He said that if he did get $1 million for the car, it would be donated to house the
00:47homeless through a program that he supports.
00:51Mujica is an atheist.
00:53In 2017, Mujica discussed his beliefs, My doubts with God are philosophical.
00:59Or maybe I believe in God.
01:02Maybe I don't know or maybe, as I'm getting closer to death, I need it.
01:06He has spoken positively of the Catholic Church, which he acknowledged is deeply entwined in
01:11Latin American identity.
01:14Mujica is an avid football fan and supports his local team, Cerro.
01:18When the Uruguay national football team returned from their World Cup campaign in 2014 at Carrasco
01:24International Airport, and following FIFA suspending Luis Suarez from all football activities
01:29for four months after biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini, Mujica criticized the organization,
01:35calling them sons of bitches who meted out fascist treatments.
01:39Realizing he was being filmed, Mujica covered his mouth.
01:43Journalists then asked if they could publish his remark, to which he replied in laughter
01:48yes.
01:49On April 2024, Mujica announced that he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which was
01:55found during a physical examination, adding that the risks to his condition were aggravated
02:00by a pre-existing autoimmune disease.
02:03During the last months of 2013, Serbian film director Amir Kosturica started shooting a
02:08documentary on the life of Mujica, whom he considers the last hero of politics.
02:14The film, titled El Pepe â Una Vida Suprema, was released in 2018.
02:20In 2014 Italian author Frank Iadice wrote the book Brief Dialogo sulla FelicitĂ , which
02:25centers on the life of Mujica.
02:2710,000 copies of the book were printed and distributed for free to local school children.
02:34In June 2016, Mujica received the Order of the Flag of Republika Srpska from the president
02:39of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik.
02:42Uruguayan film director Ălvaro Brechner's 2018 film A Twelve-Year Night â La noche
02:47de 12 años was based on Mujica's 12-year-long prison life under military dictatorship.
02:54It premiered in official selection at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, and
02:58it was selected as the Uruguayan entry for the Best Foreign Language film at the 91st
03:03Academy Awards.
03:05The film won the Golden Pyramid Award at the 40th Cairo International Film Festival.
03:10During a talk at the 28th Guadalajara International Book Fair Mexico, on Sunday 7 December 2014,
03:18Mujica was interviewed by Mexican journalist Ricardo Rocha.
03:21Uruguay's president addressed several topics, such as drug trafficking, drug legalization,
03:27poverty and social injustice.
03:30We live on the most unjust continent in the world, probably the richest, but with the
03:34worst distribution of wealth.
03:37On Latin America, José Mujica stated that he was passionate about bringing Latin Americans
03:42together, about what defines us as belonging to a great nation that is to be created.
03:47There are multinational states, like China, like India, like what Europe is doing after
03:52a history of wars.
03:54Mujica also addressed the question of the shared linguistic heritage of Latin Americans,
03:59remarking with respect to the region's two major languages that Portuguese is a sweet
04:03Spanish if you speak it slowly, and even more so if it has a feminine sweetness.
04:10And he pointed out another element that unites the countries in Latin America, we have another
04:14identity, the Christian and Catholic tradition.
04:18He concluded his talk by adding, I see that there are many young people here, as an old
04:23man, a little advice.
04:25Life can set us a lot of snares, a lot of bumps.
04:28We can fail a thousand times, in life, in love, in the social struggle, but, if we search
04:33for it, we'll have the strength to get up again and start over.
04:38The most beautiful thing about the day is that it dawns.
04:42There is always a dawn after the night has passed.
04:45Don't forget it, kids.
04:47The only losers are the ones who stop fighting.
04:50In 2021, Carolina DeRibertis published a novel based on Mujica's life, entitled The
04:56President and the Frog published in 2022 as El Presidente e la Rana.
05:01Uruguay's former guerrilla-turned-president, José Mujica, widely known as a leftist icon
05:07who transformed his small country into one of the most socially liberal in all of Latin
05:11America, said Monday that he has esophageal cancer.
05:15Mujica, 88, said he was diagnosed during a routine medical check-up last Friday.
05:21He said the tumor discovered in his esophagus is particularly dangerous because he also
05:26suffers from an autoimmune disease.
05:28"'This is obviously very complicated and doubly so in my case,' the ex-president who governed
05:34Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 told reporters Monday.
05:38He said doctors were assessing the best course of action but warned him that chemotherapy
05:42and surgery pose challenges."
05:46Known among both fans and detractors as Pepe Mujica, the folksy leader of Uruguay, a country
05:51of just 3.3 million people, was first a leader of the Tupamaros, the Marxist guerrilla group
05:56that drew inspiration from the Cuban Revolution.
06:00In the 1960s and early 1970s, Mujica wielded weapons on Montevideo streets in an effort
06:06to overthrow the government, getting shot by police several times and ultimately landing
06:10in prison until the fall of the country's dictatorship led to his release in 1985.
06:16As Uruguay's 40th president, Mujica legalized same-sex marriage, a bold move in the predominantly
06:22Roman Catholic country, and boosted women's rights.
06:26He also made Uruguay the first nation in the world to fully legalize recreational marijuana.
06:32He drew admiration in Uruguay and far afield as a politician who spoke with blunt honesty
06:37and lived up to his own values, shunning the presidential palace in favor of his modest
06:41house on the outskirts of Montevideo and donating most of his salary to charity.
06:46"'I live as I think,' he told the Associated Press in an interview last fall.
06:51"'When we have companions, we're not poor.'"
06:55Although Mujica left the Senate in 2020, he remained a powerful force in a broad front,
07:00a coalition of leftist parties and centrist social democrats.
07:05In his characteristically charming and self-effacing style, Mujica turned a press conference on
07:10his diagnosis into a pep talk for the country's youth.
07:13"'I want to convey to all the young people that life is beautiful, but it wears you out
07:18and you fall,' he said.
07:19"'The point is to start over every time you fall.
07:23If there is anger, transform it into hope.'"
07:26Mujica was born to parents of modest means and grew up in a neighborhood on the outskirts
07:31of Montevideo.
07:33In the early 1960s Mujica joined the Tupomaro, a revolutionary organization founded by Raul
07:39Sendik and others whose goal was to undermine Uruguay's repressive leadership.
07:44Within a few years the Tupomaro turned to violent actions, including arson, political
07:49kidnappings, and assassinations of a number of police officers and some others.
07:54Mujica was arrested several times for his activities and was convicted in 1971 of having
07:59killed a police officer.
08:01He escaped from prison twice but was recaptured both times and served some 14 years in all.
08:08As a prisoner of the brutal military dictatorship that seized power in a coup in June 1973,
08:14Mujica was tortured and spent long periods of time in solitary confinement, including
08:18two years at the bottom of a well.
08:21After the failure of a 1980 plebiscite on a new constitution that stopped short of the
08:26restoration of full democracy, and amid an ever-growing economic crisis, the dictatorship
08:31negotiated a return to democratic government in 1985.
08:36Mujica and the other political prisoners were freed later that year under a general amnesty.
08:41The Tupomaro joined the leftist coalition known as the Broad Front Frente Amplio, FA
08:47and reorganized as a legal political party, the Movement of Popular Participation Movimiento
08:52de ParticipaciĂłn Popular, MPP, for the 1989 elections.
08:58Mujica became one of the MPP's leading voices.
09:01Meanwhile, he moved to a farm outside Montevideo with his longtime partner and fellow former
09:06Tupomaro member, Lucia Topolansky, who also remained active in politics.
09:12They married in 2005.
09:15Mujica served one term in the Chamber of Representatives 1995 to 2000 and was then elected to the Senate
09:21in 2000.
09:23In 2004 he was re-elected to the Senate as a member of the progressive encounter Broad
09:28Front Encuentro Progresista Frente Amplio, EPFA coalition, which captured majorities
09:33in both legislative houses and whose presidential candidate, socialist Tabaré Våzquez, also
09:39won election.
09:40In the process, Mujica was sworn in as Senate leader in February 2005.
09:46He also served as Minister of Agriculture, 2005 to 2008, in VĂĄzquez's cabinet.
09:53Riding a wave of approval for VĂĄzquez's successful center-left government, Mujica
09:57sought and won nomination as the EPFA's presidential candidate in the 2009 elections.
10:03One of his chief competitors, Danilo Astori, a fellow senator and former finance minister,
10:08eventually joined the ticket as the vice presidential candidate.
10:12During the campaign, Mujica was the front-runner, but his guerrilla past, which he was at pains
10:17to show was well behind him, stirred controversy, as did his public criticism of the leaders
10:23of some other South American countries, including Argentina and Venezuela.
10:28Although the EPFA maintained its parliamentary majority in voting on October 25, Mujica did
10:34not secure the 50% plus one share of the vote necessary to prevent a runoff election for
10:38the presidency.
10:40In the runoff, held on November 29, Mujica defeated former President Luis Lecal Herrera
10:46of the National Blanco Party and took office March 1, 2010.
10:51Under Mujica's leadership the Uruguayan economy continued to prosper, posting consistent growth
10:56in GDP and per capita GDP while maintaining low unemployment rates.
11:02Against this backdrop, his administration introduced progressive legislation that altered
11:07Uruguay's social landscape.
11:09In June 2012 Mujica proposed that the government legalize and distribute marijuana to cut off
11:14revenue to drug dealers.
11:16Then, in November, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives outlining a framework
11:22for government regulation of marijuana production, sales, and consumption.
11:27By the end of December 2013, the House and Senate had passed the bill, and Mujica had
11:32signed it into law.
11:34In October 2012 Uruguay had become the first South American country to allow abortions
11:40up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, and in May 2013 Mujica signed a bill that made Uruguay
11:44the second country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage.
11:50Mujica was constitutionally prohibited from seeking a second, consecutive term.
11:54But, in much the same fashion that he had ridden into the presidency on the goodwill
11:58generated by the VĂĄzquez regime, he was able to return the favor, as the popularity of
12:03Mujica's rule paved the way for VĂĄzquez's triumph over the National Party's Luis Lecal
12:08PĂș, the son of Mujica's opponent in 2009 in the November 2014 presidential runoff election.
12:15Mujica left office the following year.
12:17Tupamaro, Uruguayan leftist urban guerrilla organization founded in about 1963.
12:24The group was named for Tupac Amaru II, the leader of an 18th-century revolt against Spanish
12:30rule in Peru.
12:32The chief founder of Tupamaro was RaĂșl Sendik, a labor organizer.
12:37The earliest Tupamaro efforts were a mixture of idealism, public relations, and theft,
12:42robbing banks and businesses and distributing food and goods to the poor.
12:47In 1968 Tupamaro began more aggressive efforts to undermine the established order, including
12:52raids on arsenals, arson, political kidnappings, with those taken held in a secret people's
12:58prison, and assassinations of a number of police officers and some others.
13:03The organization also carried out bombings against foreign interests, particularly those
13:08of Brazil and the United States.
13:11In 1971 it kidnapped the British ambassador and held him for eight months.
13:16Its success was brief, however.
13:19By the time of the June 1973 military coup in Uruguay, Tupamaro had been neutralized
13:24by government troops, which managed to kill some 300 members and imprison nearly 3,000
13:30others.
13:31After democratic rule returned to Uruguay in 1985, most of those jailed, including Sendik,
13:37were released under a general amnesty, and Tupamaro was reorganized as a legal political
13:42party.
13:43I stop at this point today.
13:46Until next time, stay curious.
13:48Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
13:54Soon we will publish.
13:56Part 3.
13:59For watching.