He has been described as "the world's 'poorest' president", as he donates around 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities to benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs
Mujica's recent speech to the UN General Assembly denouncing excess and frivolity, also received global attention:
He may look like a working class grandfather, but 78-year-old Mujica is a man with a powerful message, a leader who is a one of a kind.
Also known as Pepe Mujica, he refused to move to the luxurious house the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders, and chose instead to stay in the modest home he shares with his senator wife in the capital.
His lifestyle and the fact that he donates 90 percent of his salary to charity has earned him the label 'the poorest president in the world'.
"Those who describe me so are the poor ones," he says. "My definition of poor are those who need too much. Because those who need too much are never satisfied."
Mujica is a man who practices the simplicity he preaches and never minces words, a style some of his countrymen criticise as unpresidential, but which makes him a hero to others.
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