Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president

Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president

By Vladimir Hernandez
BBC Mundo, Montevideo



It's
a common grumble that politicians' lifestyles are far removed from
those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president - who
lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.

Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a
well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and
Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.

This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose
Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other
world leaders.

President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the
Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's
farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.

The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.

This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates
about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to
charity - has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.



"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."

"I've lived like this most of my life," he says, sitting on an
old chair in his garden, using a cushion favoured by Manuela the dog.

"I can live well with what I have."

His charitable donations - which benefit poor people and
small entrepreneurs - mean his salary is roughly in line with the
average Uruguayan income of $775 (£485) a month.



All the president's wealth - a 1987 VW Beetle

In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration - mandatory for
officials in Uruguay - was $1,800 (£1,100), the value of his 1987
Volkswagen Beetle.

This year, he added half of his wife's assets - land, tractors and a house - reaching $215,000 (£135,000).

That's still only about two-thirds of Vice-President Danilo
Astori's declared wealth, and a third of the figure declared by Mujica's
predecessor as president, Tabare Vasquez.

Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of
the Uruguayan guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the
Cuban revolution.

He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his
detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was
freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.

Those years in jail, Mujica says, helped shape his outlook on life.



Left-wing guerrilla group formed initially from poor sugar cane workers and students

• Named after Inca king Tupac Amaru
  
• Key tactic was political kidnapping - UK ambassador Geoffrey Jackson held for eight months in 1971
  
• Crushed after 1973 coup led by President Juan Maria Bordaberry
  
• Mujica was one of many rebels jailed, spending 14 years behind bars - until constitutional government returned in 1985
  
• He played key role in transforming Tupamaros into a legitimate
  political party, which joined the Frente Amplio (broad front) coalition
  

"I'm called 'the poorest
president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work
to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,"
he says.

"This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many
possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to
sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself," he says.

"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."

The Uruguayan leader made a similar point when he addressed
the Rio+20 summit in June this year: "We've been talking all afternoon
about sustainable development. To get the masses out of poverty.

"But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of
development and consumption of the rich countries? I ask you now: what
would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of
cars per household than Germans? How much oxygen would we have left?

"Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight
billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is
seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is
harming our planet."

Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a "blind
obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would
mean the end of the world".



Mujica could have followed his predecessors into a grand official residence

But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Mujica and
these other leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and
downs of political life.

"Many sympathise with President Mujica because of how he
lives. But this does not stop him for being criticised for how the
government is doing," says Ignacio Zuasnabar, a Uruguayan pollster.

The Uruguayan opposition says the country's recent economic
prosperity has not resulted in better public services in health and
education, and for the first time since Mujica's election in 2009 his
popularity has fallen below 50%.

This year he has also been under fire because of two
controversial moves. Uruguay's Congress recently passed a bill which
legalised abortions for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Unlike his
predecessor, Mujica did not veto it.



Instead, he chose to stay on his wife's farm

He is also supporting a debate on the legalisation of the
consumption of cannabis, in a bill that would also give the state the
monopoly over its trade.

"Consumption of cannabis is not the most worrying thing, drug-dealing is the real problem," he says.

However, he doesn't have to worry too much about his
popularity rating - Uruguayan law means he is not allowed to seek
re-election in 2014. Also, at 77, he is likely to retire from politics
altogether before long.

When he does, he will be eligible for a state pension - and
unlike some other former presidents, he may not find the drop in income
too hard to get used to.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493