Uruguay's leftist icon Jose Mujica reveals 'compromising' tumor
Uruguay's leftist ex-leader Jose Mujica, once known as the world's "poorest president" for giving away most of his salary and driving an old Volkswagen Beetle, revealed Monday he was battling a tumor.
The 88-year-old told reporters in Montevideo the tumor was discovered on his esophagus last week during a medical checkup.
"It is something obviously very compromising," he said -- doubly complicated because he suffers from an immune disease that would make radiotherapy and surgery difficult.
"This is not the first time the Grim Reaper has been hanging around me," said Mujica.
"This time it seems to me that he comes with the scythe at the ready and we will see what happens," he added.
Mujica's personal doctor Raquel Panone said that the tumor has not been confirmed to be malignant, and treatment has yet to be decided on.
The former guerilla fighter became a cult figure during his 2010-2015 rule, partly for his modest lifestyle.
On his watch, Uruguay passed a number of progressive laws -- legalizing abortion and gay marriage and becoming the first country in the world to allow recreational cannabis use, in 2013.
He remains a figurehead of the Broad Front, the leftist coalition in power from 2005 until it was ousted in 2019 elections by center-right leader Luis Lacalle Pou.
Mujica resigned from frontline politics in 2020, quitting his Senate seat amid the coronavirus epidemic, saying a weakened immune system put him at risk and staying in the office was no alternative to going out and meeting people.
Mujica was part of the MLN-Tupumaros rebels that waged an insurgency during the 1960s and 70s against democratic governments.
Though popular, many Uruguayans blamed them for provoking the 1973 military coup that ushered in a dictatorship that lasted until 1985.
Mujica spent 12 years in prison during that time, much of it in solitary confinement.
On Monday he offered words of advice to young people.
"I want to convey to them that life is beautiful and finite... The crux of succeeding in life is to start over every time one falls," he said, and urged people to always choose love over hatred.
As for himself, Mujica said he was grateful for his life, concluding by saying: "Nobody can take away the good times I've had."
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