5 Reasons Why Uruguay’s President Is Cooler Than Your President

5 Reasons Why Uruguay’s President Is Cooler Than Your President

The tiny South American country of Uruguay has been making international news lately due to their latest history-making legalization of marijuana.  What hasn’t been reported is all the other amazing stuff Uruguay’s president has been quietly doing to help his people while in office.

While other world leaders take advantage of their position of power to enrich their friends and enjoy the perks of the job, President Jose Mujica has been on a one-man mission to tackle the problems of his people. How refreshing.

1. His “retirement plan” includes adopting 30 to 40 impoverished children

Many presidents spend their retirement years giving expensive lectures and dedicating buildings to themselves. After serving his term, President Mujica has announced that he plans on taking poor kids off the street and letting them live at his home.

“I have the goal of getting together 30 or 40 poor kids and bringing them to live with me,” he said Friday night at a business diner, according to the El Observador newspaper. [source]

2. He donates almost his entire presidential salary to social programs

Mujica has no interest in becoming wealthy while in office. He’d much rather see his money go towards the people he serves. That is why, since taking office in 2010, he has donated nearly 90% of his salary to social programs. Deferring a paycheck has earned him the title as “the poorest president in the world.” A distinction he pays little attention to.

El presidente explained he receives $12,500 a month but keeps only $1,250. The public servant told the newspaper, “I do fine with that amount; I have to do fine because there are many Uruguayans who live with much less.” [source]

That self-induced low pay means he makes around $15,000 a year. For reference, President Obama brings in around $400,000 a year. If ever there was a leader who could say he knows what it is like to get by on less, it’s Mujica.

3. He refuses to live in the Presidential Mansion, instead living with his wife at their family farm

Customarily, the Uruguayan president is entitled to a luxurious mansion provided by the state, but Mujica insists on remaining at his family farm, where he keeps his two most prized possessions: his three-legged dog named Manuela and his old Volkswagen Beetle.

Turning down the invitation to live at a luxurious grace and favour residence owned by the state, he instead continues to reside at his ramshackle farm situated a few miles away from the country’s capital city of Montevideo.

The only sign the country’s leader is at home are the pair of police officers who stand guard at the end of his heavily tractor-rutted dirt track. [source]

4. He insists on treating drug users with compassion not criminalization

Many countries, including the United States, treat drug users as criminals but Mujica has tried a different approach. He realized that greatest damage being done was not by an ordinary person smoking a joint, but the drug dealers who profit on the fact that drugs are illegal and have offered the service on the black market – oftentimes bringing with it, violence and exploitation.

Speaking about his reasoning behind legalizing marijuana, Mujica said:

“We’ve given this market as a gift to the drug traffickers,” the 78-year-old Jose Mujica said, “and that is more destructive socially than the drug itself, because it rots the whole of society.”

His plan was to give the drugs over to the people and take it out of the hands of the drug dealers. To this end, he has proposed not just legalizing the use of marijuana (as other countries have done), but go further. He has legalized every aspect of what was once the drug trade. Citizens are allowed to grow, distribute, and smoke the plant without fear of being labeled a criminal. He also plans to offer the drug at state-run dispensaries for as little as $1 a gram, further undercutting the illegal drug trade in the country.

5. He brought the legalization of gay marriage to Uruguay

Uruguayans celebrate after gay marriage law is signed.

While many countries continue to adopt gay marriage rights only slowly (and some have even regressed), Uruguay spent this summer becoming the 2nd country in South America to legalize gay marriage (and only the 12th in the world). Uruguay, a largely Catholic country, would not be considered an obvious choice to lead the way in gay rights, but under Mujica and his liberal allies in government, the country managed to pass the law with hardly a fuss. Since then Uruguayan gay couples have been flocking to government offices to get marriage licenses.