Goodbye and Thank You to a Rare Man

And a truly unique president. If there has ever been another country's ruler like Pepe Mujica in all of history, I have never heard about it.  And more's the pity.

Uruguay's president, Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former guerrilla who lives on a farm and gives most of his salary to charity, is stepping down after five years in office, ending his term as one of the world's most popular leaders ever.

Mujica, 79, is leaving office with a 65 percent approval rating. He is constitutionally prohibited from serving consecutive terms.

"I became president filled with idealism, but then reality hit," Mujica said in an interview with a local newspaper earlier this week, according to AFP.

  RT

Too bad.

Mujica, a former leftist Tupamaro guerrilla leader, spent 13 years in jail during the years of Uruguay's military dictatorship. He survived torture and endless months of solitary confinement.

[...]

He refused to move to Uruguay’s luxurious presidential mansion to live in a farm outside Montevideo with his wife and [...] dog named Manuela. Pepe gives away about 90 percent of his salary to charity, saying he simply doesn't need it. He drives an 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.

[...]

In January, a young Uruguayan man posted a message on his Facebook page [...]

“On Monday, I was looking for a ride from Conchilla and guess who picked me up on the road?” [It was the president and his wife.] “They were the only ones who would stop!”

“When I got out, I thanked them profusely because not everyone helps someone out on the road, and much less a president,” the man told Uruguay’s El Observador newspaper.

[...]

Last year, Mujica turned down a $1 million offer from an Arab sheik who offered to buy his blue car. Pepe refused to sell the vehicle, saying it would offend "all those friends who pooled together to buy it for us.”

[...]

Mujica says "there's still so much to do" and hopes that the next government, led by Tabare Vazquez (who was elected president for a second time last November) will be “better than mine and will have greater success."

[...]

After Latin America’s anti-drug war proved a failure, the South American country became the first in the world to fully legalize marijuana, with Mujica arguing that drug trafficking is in fact more dangerous than marijuana itself.

One of the most progressive leaders in Latin America. Muijica also legalized abortion and same-sex marriage and agreed to take in detainees once held at the notorious Guantanamo. [...] Although they were cleared for release back in 2009, the US was not able to discharge them until [the] Uruguayan President offered to receive them [this past December].

Now, THAT doesn't seem to be going so well.

Dear Pope Frank:  Surely this man is a saint.

Oh, God. Even his dog is poor.