everything about the poorest and fairest president of Uruguay Jose Alberto part 1

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00:00Everything About the Poorest and Fairest President of Uruguay, José Alberto, His Life and Everything

00:06About Him Part 1

00:08José Alberto Pepe Mujica Cardona, born 20 May 1935, is a Uruguayan politician, former

00:16revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015.

00:22A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years during

00:27the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

00:32A member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, Mujica was Minister of Livestock,

00:37Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and a Senator afterwards.

00:43As the candidate of the Broad Front, he won the 2009 presidential election and took office

00:48as President on 1 March 2010.

00:52He was the second gentleman of Uruguay from 13 September 2017 to 1 March 2020, when his

00:58wife Lucia Topolansky was Vice-President under his immediate predecessor and successor, Tabaré

01:04Vázquez.

01:05Mujica has been described as the world's humblest head of state due to his austere lifestyle

01:10and his donation of around 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities that benefit poor

01:16people and small entrepreneurs.

01:18An outspoken critic of capitalism's focus on stockpiling material possessions which

01:23do not contribute to human happiness, he has been praised by the media and journalists

01:27for his philosophical ideologies Times Higher Education referred to him as the philosopher

01:32president in 2015, a play on words of Plato's conception of the philosopher-king.

01:39Mujica was born on 20 May 1935 in the neighbourhood of Paso de la Arena in the capital city of

01:44Montevideo to Dimitrio Mujica and Lucy Cardona.

01:49Dimitrio was a descendant of a Spanish Basque family, originating from Mujica in the province

01:53of Biscay.

01:54His family arrived in Uruguay in 1842.

01:58Dimitrio was a farmer who went bankrupt shortly before his death in 1940 when José was five

02:04years old.

02:05Lucy was born in Carmelo to poor Italian immigrants from Liguria, with origins from Favalli di

02:11Malvaro and Val Fontanabuona in the province of Genoa.

02:16Upon her birth, her parents had bought two hectares, 4.9 acres, in Colonia Estrella to

02:21cultivate vineyards.

02:24Upon completing his primary and secondary studies, Mujica enrolled at the Alfredo Vázquez

02:29Acevedo Institute for his undergraduate studies, but did not finish.

02:34Between the ages of 13 and 17, Mujica cycled for several clubs in different categories.

02:40He was also active in the National Party, where he became close to Enrique Uro.

02:46In the mid-1960s, Mujica joined the newly formed MLN Tupamaros movement, a far-left

02:52armed political group inspired by the Cuban Revolution.

02:56He participated in the brief 1969 takeover of Pondo, a town close to Montevideo, leading

03:02one of six squads assaulting strategic points in the city.

03:06Mujica's team was charged with taking over the telephone exchange and was the only one

03:10to complete the operation without any mishaps.

03:14In March 1970 Mujica was gunned down while resisting arrest at a Montevideo bar.

03:20He injured two policemen and was in turn shot six times.

03:24The surgeon on call at the hospital saved his life.

03:27Tupamaros claimed that the surgeon was secretly Tupamaro and this is why his life was saved.

03:33In reality the doctor was simply following ordinary medical ethics.

03:38At the time, the president of Uruguay was the controversial Jorge Pacheco Areco, who

03:43had suspended certain constitutional guarantees in response to MLN and communist unrest.

03:49Mujica was captured by the authorities on four occasions.

03:53He was among the more than 100 Tupamaros who escaped Punta Caretas prison in September

03:58by digging a tunnel from inside the prison that led to the living room of a nearby home.

04:04Mujica was recaptured less than a month after escaping, but escaped Punta Caretas once more

04:09in April 1972.

04:11On that occasion he and about a dozen other escapees fled riding improvised wheeled planks

04:16down the tunnel dug by Tupamaros from outside the prison.

04:20He was re-apprehended for the last time in 1972, unable to resist arrest.

04:26In the months that followed, the country underwent the military coup in 1973.

04:32In the meantime, Mujica and eight other Tupamaros were especially chosen to remain under military

04:37custody and in squalid conditions.

04:41In all, he spent 13 years in captivity.

04:44During the 1970s and 1980s, this included being confined to the bottom of an old, emptied

04:50horse watering trough for more than two years.

04:53During his time in prison, Mujica had a number of health problems, particularly mental issues.

05:00Although his two closest cellmates, Eleuterio Fernandez-Juidibro and Mauricio Rosenkopf,

05:05often managed to communicate with each other, they rarely managed to bring Mujica into the

05:10conversation.

05:11Mujica himself, at the time he was experiencing auditory hallucinations and related forms

05:16of paranoia.

05:18In 1985, when constitutional democracy was restored, Mujica was freed under an amnesty

05:23law that covered political and related military crimes committed since 1962.

05:29Several years after the restoration of democracy, Mujica and many Tupamaros joined other left-wing

05:35organizations to create the Movement of Popular Participation, a political party that was

05:39accepted within the Broad Front Coalition.

05:43In the 1994 general elections, Mujica was elected deputy and in the elections of 1999

05:49he was elected senator.

05:51Due in part to Mujica's charisma, the MPP continued to grow in popularity and votes,

05:57and by 2004, it had become the largest faction within the Broad Front.

06:02In the elections of that year, Mujica was re-elected to the Senate, and the MPP obtained

06:07over 300,000 votes, thus consolidating its position as the top political force within

06:12the coalition and a major force behind the victory of presidential candidate Tabare Vazquez.

06:18Mujica was then elected in 2009 as president in the following elections.

06:23On 1 March 2005, President Tabare Vazquez designated Mujica as the Minister of Livestock,

06:30Agriculture and Fisheries.

06:32Mujica's own professional background was in the agricultural sector.

06:36Upon becoming minister, Mujica resigned his position as senator.

06:40He held this position until a cabinet change in 2008, when he resigned and was replaced

06:45by Ernesto Agassi.

06:48Mujica then returned to his seat in the Senate.

06:51Mujica's political ideology has evolved over the years from orthodox to pragmatist.

06:57In recent times he has expressed a desire for a more flexible political left.

07:02His speaking style and manner are credited as part of his growing popularity since the

07:06late 1990s, especially among rural and poor sectors of the population.

07:11He has been variously described as an anti-politician and a man who speaks the language of the people

07:16while also receiving criticism for untimely or inappropriate remarks.

07:21Unlike President Vazquez, who vetoed a bill put forward by Parliament that would make

07:25abortions legal, Mujica has stated that should it come before him in the future, he would

07:30not veto such a bill.

07:32In the sphere of international relations, he hoped to further negotiations and agreements

07:37between the European Union and the regional trade bloc Mercosur, of which Uruguay is a

07:41founding member.

07:43On the Uruguay River pulp mill dispute between Argentina and Uruguay, Mujica was more conciliatory

07:49toward the Argentine government than the previous administration, and in 2010 the two nations

07:54ended their long-running dispute and signed an agreement detailing an environmental monitoring

07:58plan of the river and the setting up of a binational commission.

08:02Good personal relations between Mujica and Argentinian counterpart Cristina Fernández

08:07de Kirchner helped lead to the accord.

08:10Other bilateral issues remain unsolved, including the dredging of the shared access channel

08:15of the river Plate.

08:17He was close to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, whom he considered to be the most

08:21generous ruler I have ever known.

08:24In 2011, he spoke out against the military operations launched by several Western countries

08:29against Libya.

08:31When asked about Brazilian President Lula da Silva's decision to receive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

08:36he answered it was a genius move because the more Iran is fenced in, the worse it will

08:41be for the rest of the world.

08:43Even though President Vazquez favoured his finance minister Danilo Astori as the presidential

08:48candidate of the then-unified broad front to succeed him in 2010, Mujica's broad appeal

08:53and growing support within the party posed a challenge to the president.

08:58On 14 December 2008, the Extraordinary Congress Zelmer Mikulini A party convention proclaimed

09:04Mujica as the official candidate of the broad front for the primary elections of 2009, but

09:09four more pre-candidates were allowed to participate, including Astori.

09:14On 28 June 2009, Mujica won the primary elections becoming the presidential candidate of the

09:20broad front for the 2009 general election.

09:24After that, Astori agreed to be his running mate.

09:27Their campaign was centred on the concept of continuing and deepening the policies of

09:31the highly popular administration of Vazquez, using the slogan Un gobierno generado, and

09:36Pes de Primera an honourable government, a first-class country, indirectly referencing

09:41cases of administrative corruption within the former government of the major opposition

09:45candidate, conservative Luis Alberto Lical.

09:49During the campaign, Mujica distanced himself from the governing style of presidents like

09:53Hugo Chavez Venezuela or Evo Morales Bolivia, claiming the centre-left governments of Brazilian

09:59Luis Inacio Lula da Silva or Chilean socialist Michel Bachelet as regional examples upon

10:05which he would model his administration.

10:08Known for his informal style of dress, Mujica donned a suit without a tie for some stops

10:13in the presidential campaign, notably during visits to regional heads of state.

10:18In October 2009, Mujica won a plurality of over 48% of the votes compared to 30% for

10:24former president Lical, falling short of the majority required by the constitution, while

10:29at the same time renewing the broad front's parliamentary majority for the next legislature

10:342010-2015.

10:35A run-off was then held on 29 November to determine the winner.

10:40On 30 November Mujica emerged as the victor, with more than 52% of the vote over Lical's

10:4643%.

10:48In his first speech as president-elect before a crowd of supporters, Mujica acknowledged

10:53his political adversaries and called for unity, stating that there would be no winners or

10:58losers.

10:59He added that it is a mistake to think that power comes from above when it comes from

11:03within the hearts of the masses it has taken me a lifetime to learn this fact.

11:08Mujica formed a cabinet made up of politicians from the different components of the broad

11:12front, conceding the area of economics to aides of his vice president Danilo Astori.

11:18In June 2012, Mujica's government made a controversial move to legalize state-controlled

11:24sales of marijuana in Uruguay in order to fight drug-related crimes and health issues,

11:28and stated that they would ask global leaders to do the same.

11:33Mujica said that by regulating Uruguay's estimated $40 million-a-year marijuana business,

11:38the state would take it away from drug traffickers and weaken the drug cartels.

11:43The state would also be able to keep track of all marijuana consumers in the country

11:47and provide treatment to the most serious abusers, much like that which is done with

11:51alcoholics.

11:53Mujica also passed a same-sex marriage law and legalized abortion for women.

11:58In September 2013, Mujica addressed the United Nations General Assembly with a long speech

12:04devoted to humanity and globalization.

12:07The speech called on the international community to strengthen efforts to preserve the planet

12:11for future generations and highlighted the power of the financial systems and the impact

12:16of economic fallout on ordinary people.

12:19He urged a return to simplicity, with lives founded on human relationships, love, friendship,

12:25adventure, solidarity and family, instead of lives shackled to the economy and the markets.

12:32Parts of his speech were incorporated into the intro to the song Santiago on Nguyen Afrobeat's

12:37first album.

12:39In general terms, its policy was in line with the previous mandate.

12:43The share of social expenditure in total public expenditure thus rose from 60.9% to 75.5%

12:50between 2004 and 2013.

12:54During this period, the unemployment rate remained at about 7%, the national poverty

12:59rate was reduced from 18% to 9.7% and the minimum wage was raised from UYU $4,800 to

13:06UYU $10,000 average annual inflation rate of 7% and the government's debt raised from

13:1259% to 65%.

13:15It also supported the strengthening of trade unions.

13:18According to the International Trade Union Confederation, Uruguay has become the most

13:23advanced country in the Americas in terms of respect for fundamental labor rights, in

13:27particular freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to

13:32strike.

13:34Mujica was barred from running for re-election in 2014.

13:37The constitution does not allow presidents to run for immediate re-election.

13:40Thus, on 1 March 2015, Mujica's term as president came to an end.

13:48He was succeeded by Vasquez, who returned to office for a second non-consecutive term.

13:54According to BBC correspondent Wire Davies, Mujica left office with a relatively healthy

13:59economy and with social stability those bigger neighbors could only dream of.

14:04In 2005, Mujica married Lucia Topolansky, a fellow former Tupamaros member, after many

14:10years of living together.

14:12They have no children and live on a farm owned by Topolansky on the outskirts of Montevideo,

14:18where they cultivate chrysanthemums for sale, having declined to live in the presidential

14:22palace or to use its staff.

14:24The couple owns several pets, formerly including a three-legged dog, Manuela.

14:31Topolansky briefly served as acting president in November 2010 while her husband took part

14:35in a business delegation to Spain and Vice President Astori was on an official trip to

14:39Antarctica.

14:41Before then, she served in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

14:45I stop at this point today.

14:47Until next time, stay curious.

14:50Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.

14:55Soon we will publish.

14:57Part 2.

15:00For watching.

everything about the poorest and fairest president of Uruguay Jose Alberto part 1

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