Pepe Mujica, farmer and former president of Uruguay, died on May 13, 2025.
On April 29 of last year, Mujica announced at a press conference that he had a tumor in his esophagus.
However, on May 12, the widow of the former president of Uruguay confirmed that Mujica was in palliative care due to terminal cancer that had plagued him since 2024, causing him to miss the elections on May 11.
It should be noted that Mujica himself had reported that the tumor in his esophagus that was detected had metastasized to the point of affecting his liver, leading him to declare “this is as far as I go” in January 2025.
What did Pepe Mujica die of?
Pepe Mujica reportedly died of terminal cancer, caused by a tumor in his esophagus that he had had since 2024. After several hours in palliative care and in poor health, the former guerrilla died.
Who was Pepe Mujica?
With his unconventional style, his self-proclaimed status as the “poorest president in the world,” and a law that legalized marijuana, former Uruguayan head of state José Mujica, a former guerrilla detained and tortured for 13 years, achieved the feat of placing this small country in the southern cone of Latin America in the global spotlight.
Mujica was a guerrilla in the 1960s and 1970s, a political prisoner for fourteen years, continuously between 1972 and the end of the dictatorship (1973-1985), a member of parliament for more than a decade, and a minister under the first leftist administration in Uruguay’s history (2005-2010). He announced that he has an esophageal tumor.
The world’s poorest president
Extremely austere (he donated 87 percent of his salary to his party’s social programs, particularly one aimed at building housing to rehouse slum dwellers).
Mujica currently resides on his small farm on the outskirts of Montevideo, where he grows flowers and vegetables with his wife, senator and former guerrilla LucÃa Topolansky.
