José Alberto Mujica Cordano ( , known as El Pepe, (born May 20, 1935) is a Uruguayan politician and former guerrilla fighter, member of the Broad Front and current president-elect of the country. He was a Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and currently is a Senator. He was elected president in the 2009 presidential election and will take office on March 1 2010.

Background

As a youth, Mujica was active in the National Party, where he became close to Enrique Erro. In the early 1960s, he joined the recently formed Tupamaros movement, an armed political group inspired by the Cuban revolution. Of note, he participated in the 1969 brief takeover of Pando, a town close to Montevideo. Mujica was captured by the authorities on four occasions, and he was among those political prisoners who broke free of the Punta Carretas Prison. He was eventually re-apprehended in 1972, shot by the police six times. After the military coup in 1973, he was transferred to a military prison for 14 years and, with other Tupamaros, became a “hostage” of the regime. During the 1970s, this included being confined to the bottom of a well for over two years. During his time in prison, he remained in contact with other leaders of the Tupamaros, including Frente Amplio Senator Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro and the founder and leader of the Tupamaros Raúl Sendic. In 1985, when democracy was restored, Mujica was freed under a general amnesty for all common and political prisoners since 1962. Several years after the restoration of democracy, Mujica joined other members of the Tupamaros to create the Movement of Popular Participation, a political party that was accepted within the Broad Front coalition. In the 1994 general elections, Mujica was elected deputy and in the elections of 1999 he was elected senator. Due in part to Mujica’s charisma, the MPP continued to grow in popularity and votes, and by 2004, it had become the largest of any faction within the Broad Front. In the elections of that year, Mujica was re-elected senator, and the MPP obtained over 300,000 votes, thus consolidating its position as the primary political force within the coalition, and a major force behind the victory of presidential candidate Tabaré Vázquez.

Minister of Agriculture

On March 1, 2005, President Tabaré Vázquez designated Mujica as the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries. Upon becoming minister, Mujica resigned his position as Senator. He held this position until a cabinet change in 2008, when he resigned and was replaced by Ernesto Agazzi. Mujica then returned to his seat in the Senate.

Political positions

Mujica's political ideology has evolved over the years from orthodox to pragmatist. In recent times he has expressed a desire for a more flexible political left that can think outside the box .His blunt and folksy style is credited to be behind his growing popularity since the late 1990s, especially among rural and poor sectors of the population that the left traditionally had trouble reaching. He has been variously described as an "antipolitician" and a man who "speaks the language of the people" while also receiving criticism for untimely or inappropriate remarks . Unlike president Vázquez, who vetoed a bill put forward by parliament that would make abortions legal, Mujica has stated that should it come before him in the future, he would not veto such a bill . In the sphere of international relations, he hopes to further negotiations and agreements between the European Union and the Mercosur. Asked about Lula's decision to receive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he answered it was a "genius move" because "The more you fence in Iran, so much harder it will be for the rest of the world".

Presidential candidate

Even though President Vázquez favored his Finance Minister Danilo Astori as presidential candidate of the then unified Broad Front to succeed him in 2010, Mujica’s broad appeal and growing support within the party posed a challenge to the president. On December 14, 2008, The Extraordinary Congress “Zelmar Michelini” (a party convention) proclaimed Mujica as the official candidate of the Broad Front for primary elections of 2009, but four more precandidates were allowed to participate, including Astori.On June 28, 2009, Mujica won the primary elections becoming the presidential candidate of the Broad Front for the 2009 general election. After that, Astori agreed to be his running mate. Their campaign was centered on the concept of continuing and deepening the policies of the highly popular administration of Vázquez, using the slogan “Un gobierno honrado, un país de primera” (An honest government, a first-class country) - indirectly referencing cases of administrative corruption within the former government of the major opposition candidate, conservative Luis Alberto Lacalle. During the campaign, Mujica distanced himself from the governing style of presidents like Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) or Evo Morales (Bolivia), claiming the center-left governments of Brazilian Luis Inácio Lula da Silva or Chilean socialist Michelle Bachelet as regional examples upon which he would model his administration. Known for his informal dressing style, Mujica donned a suit (without a tie) for some stops of the presidential campaign, notably during visits to regional heads of state .

In October, Mujica won a plurality of over 48 percent of the votes compared to 30 percent for former president Lacalle, failing short of the majority required by the constitution. A runoff was then held on November 29 to determine the winner; on November 30 Mujica emerged as the victor, with more than 52% of the vote over Lacalle’s 43%. In his first speech as president-elect before a crowd of supporters, Mujica acknowledged his political adversaries and called for unity, stating that there would be nobody defeated or victorious ("Ni vencidos, ni vencedores"). He added that "it is a mistake to think that power comes from above, when it comes from within the hearts of the masses (...) it has taken me a lifetime to learn this", a statement that has been interpreted as an acknowledgment of the mistakes of the armed revolutionary ways of the 1960s .

Personal life

In 2005, Mujica married Lucía Topolansky, a fellow Tupamaro fighter and current Senator, after many years of co-habitation. They have no children and live on an austere farm in the outskirts of Montevideo, the country's capital.

References

Further reading

• Mujica, el viaje de un tupamaro
• Mujica por Pagina 12: “En mi paisito vale la pena invertir”
• [189619]