José Mujica, Uruguay’s humble president who changed his country and charmed the world, dies at 89

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerrilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died. He was 89.

His death was announced by Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi. In a post on social media platform X, Orsi called Mujica a “president, activist, guide and leader.” Mujica had been under treatment for cancer of the esophagus since spring 2024, when the affliction was diagnosed.

Even as the treatment left him weak and hardly able to eat, Mujica reappeared on the political stage in fall of 2024, campaigning for his left-wing coalition in national elections that vaulted his preferred candidate and protégé, Orsi, to the presidency.

In September 2024, his doctor reported that radiation had succeeded in eliminating much of the tumor. But in January 2025, Mujica’s doctor announced that the cancer in his esophagus had returned and spread to his liver. His autoimmune disease and other underlying medical problems led Mujica to decide not to pursue further treatment.

“Honestly, I’m dying,” Mujica told weekly magazine Busqueda in what he said would be his final interview. “A warrior has the right to rest.”

During his 2010-2015 presidency, Mujica, widely known as “Pepe,” oversaw the transformation of his small South American nation into one of the world’s most socially liberal democracies. He earned admiration at home and cult status abroad for legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, enacting the region’s first sweeping abortion rights law and establishing Uruguay as a leader in alternative energy.