Pepe Mujica: 10 amazing facts about the former Uruguayan president

José “Pepe” Mujica, former Uruguayan president who ruled Uruguay between 2015 and 2018, and gained worldwide admiration, accumulated several curious stories throughout his life.

From the millionaire offers he received and never accepted to sell his famous light blue fusquinha, until the sad fact that he had to drink his own urine to survive in prison, there are several episodes that make the story of the late leftist leader so surprising.

THE CNN He compiled ten curiosities about the former president who attracted the planet’s attention to Uruguay, the second smallest country in South America. Check it out:

Millionaire offers for the fusquinha

Pepe Mujica received an offer of over one million dollars for his famous fusquinha. The first proposal was made to him on behalf of an Arab sheique during a summit of G77+China countries in Bolivia in 2014.

In the same year, the then Mexico Ambassador in Uruguay, Felipe Enríquez, offered Mujica ten trucks through the Blue Fusquinha. He said he was surprised by the proposals, but ended up keeping the car.

In January 2023, on a visit to the former president in his farm in the metropolitan region of Montevideo, President Lula, who had just returned to power, walked Mujica in the Blue Fusquinha.

Show legs

Averse to any formality, Mujica refused to wear a tie at official events such as government acts, bilateral meetings with pairs from other countries and presidential domes. The accessory was rejected by him even in his inauguration ceremony.

But the relaxation in the way of dressing caused particular repercussion at the ceremony in which one of the ministers of the economy of his mandate, Mario Bergara, assumed. Mujica used at the event short pants and sandals, exposing much of the legs and the toes.

Drank pee to survive

In an act in 2009, former guerrilla Tupamaro who was trapped with Mujica and then would become his defense minister, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, said it was possible that Uruguay had as president a person who took his own pee.

The speech was recorded, according to local press, in an act, in which Huidobro said that, in the face of the cruelty of jailers who did not allow detainees to drink water, one day prisoners had to decide whether they would drink their own urine. And that did so.

Refused presidential residence

During his government, Mujica did not move to the Suárez Y Reyes residence, Uruguay’s presidential housing, located in the aristocratic neighborhood of Prado, in Montevideo. The then president preferred to continue sleeping in his modest farm in Rincón Del Cerro, on the rural periphery of Montevideo.

There he cultivated flowers and vegetables, driving his own tractor, alongside his wife, former guerrilla Lucía Topolansky, and a three-legged dog, Manuela.

“It would be complicated my life. There are four floors, to have tea you have to make an expedition… No. No, you have to call people to serve you,” he said, about the refusal to move to the presidential residence, to all news channel, CNN affiliate in Argentina.

Throughout his term, he also sold the Summer Presidential Residence in Punta del Este. The value of the property was intended for a housing plan for vulnerable sectors created by Mujica.

Presidential track without measure

Mujica wanted to take the presidential track of Tabaré Vázquez, his predecessor, for the inauguration of March 1, 2010, and return it later, but the then president refused. Uruguayan businessman Alberto Fernández, owner of the largest fishing company in the country, who wanted to give the gift range to Mujica, had to insist exhaustion so that the future president accepts the preparation of a new one.

“Do whatever you want, but I won’t prove anything,” Mujica said at the time. The entrepreneur then used a pillow as a parameter to establish measurements for the track, commissioned to the Oblatable Congregation of the Blessed Redeemer, which was traditionally charged with this task.

The nuns of the congregation went to the farm and take some measures of mujica, but the main work was already done and the track was very large: it surpassed Vázquez’s knees and was halfway through the mujica thigh. The story is told in the book “A Black Sheep in Power: Ernesto Tulbovitz’s confessions and intimacies.

Was flower seller

Orphan of father since he was eight years old, Mujica had to work in childhood to help his mother with domestic finances. With her, he learned to cultivate flowers. Then he sold them at fairs close to home. The former president maintained the craft throughout his life as a source of income, and despite stating that they no longer planted them for giving hard work, the Uruguayan leader continued to cultivate a garden for his own consumption and working in the field.

Battle for Penico

In 1976, during his long years in prison, Mujica had urinary incontinence and was prevented by the military from going to the bathroom. Knowing the situation, his mother Lucy Cordano took him a pink kebab and got permission to be handed over to her son.

Even so, the military prevented the object from reaching the hands of Mujica. After much insisting that they gave him the penic, he took advantage of a party, with illustrious guests, in the barracks where he was arrested, to scream through the window that would not let him pee.

The scandal caught the attention of the guests, until the major of the unit went to Mujica, listened to the request and handed him the potty. The object, pink, was cared for by Pepe as a preciousness – which was really in the unhealthy conditions of prison.

Pepe left carrying his potty the day he was released. Inside the container, he led with him callands, which he cultivated and got them flourish in the prison site.

Presidential coins

In 2014, when he interviewed Uruguayan television channels, Mujica was approached by a man asking for money. “A coin to eat something, Pepe,” asked the beggar.

The then president then asked someone to help the beggar. But soon the man came back and asked, “A coin of his, Pepe.” Mujica then opened his wallet, took a note and exclaimed, “Look, brother, currency I don’t have, but don’t cry!”

The beggar, then, said he wanted Mujica to be president all his life, to which he answered, laughing, “No, no, you’re crazy!” And he joked: “Pass the hat, pass the hat,” encouraging the man to ask for money for the other gifts.

Football to disguise

Mujica participated in a huge escape that entered the history of Uruguay in 1971, when 111 detainees – 105 guerrillas and political prisoners, with six ordinary prisoners – managed to escape. The massive escape of the Punta Carretes Penitentiary was possible after the prisoners dug a tunnel that connected 25 cells.

In the book “Mujica – The Quiet Revolution, author Mauricio Rabuffetti describes that in order not to be discovered, the prisoners covered the holes with plaster – that their families took to prison as if it were flour – posters and posters.

They paid the guards to increase the deadlines between the cell magazines and enjoyed soccer matches between the detainees, to scream the tunnel, shouting goals and fouls that never occurred to disguise the noise of the excavation.

Lost half lung, spleen and teeth

Mujica took several shots during the past as a guerrilla. In some circumstances it stated that it was 7, in others that were nine. One of the times it was hit with shots, lost half lung and the spleen.

In prison, he suffered from psychological and physical diseases. Delighted. Had diarrhea and urinary incontinence. And lost teeth so much that he caught in torture.

This content was originally published in Pepe Mujica: 10 amazing facts about former Uruguayan President on CNN Brazil.

Source: CNN Brasil