The character arc of Jose Mujica
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born 20 May 1935 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Between then and now sit membership of an armed guerrilla movement from the mid 1960s, six gunshot wounds in 1970, capture in 1972 and thirteen years in prison under a military dictatorship including more than two years at the bottom of an emptied horse-watering trough, release under an amnesty in 1985, a seat in parliament, and the presidency of Uruguay from 2010. The line below draws the whole story.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Jose Mujica?
They kept him in a water trough, and he came back as president.
He was born in Montevideo in 1935 and joined the Tupamaros in the mid 1960s, an armed guerrilla movement that robbed, kidnapped and killed. That is what it was, and the record of it is not in dispute. In March 1970 he was shot six times while resisting arrest in a Montevideo bar, and wounded two policemen in the same confrontation. He was captured four times between 1970 and 1972, escaping twice, and after the final capture in 1972 he was held for thirteen years.
The conditions are the part that is hard to take in. Under the military dictatorship he was among a group of prisoners held as hostages against the movement, and for more than two years he was confined at the bottom of an old, emptied horse-watering trough. He was released in 1985, when the dictatorship ended and an amnesty was passed, at the age of fifty.
What he did next is why he is on this list. He did not go back to arms. The movement became a legal political party, he was elected to parliament in 1995, to the senate in 2000, made minister of livestock and agriculture in 2005, and on 1 March 2010 he became president of Uruguay. He kept living on his small farm with his wife Lucia Topolansky, a former guerrilla herself, and gave away around ninety per cent of a twelve thousand dollar monthly salary. Under him Uruguay decriminalised abortion in 2012 and legalised same sex marriage and cannabis in 2013, the first country to regulate cannabis fully. He handed over power in 2015 and went back to the farm. His line is worth reading because the thirteen years did not make him bitter, and he said so for the rest of his life.
The moments
Jose Mujica's timeline.
The 1960s
He joined the Tupamaros
Milestone, and it changed everything. An armed movement that robbed, kidnapped and killed. He was part of it, and never denied it.
The 1970s
Shot six times
Setback, and it changed everything. Six bullets, in a bar, at thirty four. He survived them.
Thirteen years in prison
Setback, and it changed everything. Half his thirties, all of his forties, and the first year of his fifties, spent inside.
Two years in a trough
Setback, and it changed everything. Not a cell. The bottom of a trough, for more than two years, as a hostage against his own movement.
The 1980s
Released under the amnesty
Milestone, and it changed everything. Out at fifty, with nothing, into a country that had just got its democracy back.
Back to arms, or the ballot box
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: enter electoral politics, taken, or return to armed struggle. He was elected to parliament in 1995, to the senate in 2000, and became president of Uruguay in 2010, twenty five years after leaving prison.
The 1990s
Elected to parliament
Milestone, and it changed everything. The movement had become a legal party, and he went in through the ballot box rather than back to arms.
The 2000s
Into the senate
Milestone. Fifteen years after prison, in the upper house of the parliament of the state that had held him.
Minister of agriculture
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A cabinet post, and a marriage, in the same year.
The 2010s
President of Uruguay
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty five years after walking out of prison, head of the state that had put him there.
He gave the salary away
Everyday, and it changed everything. He stayed on the small farm, kept the old car, and gave away nine tenths of the pay.
The laws that changed Uruguay
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three laws in two years that most countries were nowhere near, from a country of three million people.
He handed it over
Milestone, and it changed everything. One term, no attempt at another, and back to the farm he had never left.
The 2020s
A cancer diagnosis
Setback, and it changed everything. At eighty eight, and he told the country about it himself.
He declined more treatment
Setback, and it changed everything. He said plainly what was happening and what he had decided, and then went home.
The line ends on 13 May 2025, at the farmhouse outside Montevideo, at eighty nine, of a cancer he had stopped treating. What it set moving is partly in law and partly in an example: a man who was held in a hole in the ground and came out of it without needing revenge.
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Sources
- Jose Mujica, English Wikipedia biography.
- Presidency of Uruguay, official record, 2010 to 2015.