Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is convenient for you to discuss and share, but also brings you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
preface
Do you believe a president of a developed country with only $1800 in assets?
To exaggerate, this amount is even less than that of some families on the mainland, and the one-year poverty allowance is not to mention the public service allowance in other developed countries.
But there is really such a "poor president" in the world, who comes from Uruguay, which is known as the "diamond country".
On the outskirts of Montevideo, uruguay's capital, there is an extremely ordinary farmstead. The crumbling slab houses here, as well as the tractors that have fallen into disrepair, give a sense of the simplicity and poverty of the farmstead.
In the field of the farm, there is an old man in a coarse cloth shirt, driving an old tractor to work hard.
Despite the harsh environment, the old man's face was full of smiles, as if he was very satisfied with everything.
Yes, this old man is what we call the world's "poorest president" – Uruguay's then-President José Lopez. Muhika. He is also one of the most admired presidents in the world.
As the president of a country, how could he be so poor? And why is he so praised by all countries?
Today, let's take you to see the story behind this.
Poor spokesman, leading the country out of the financial crisis
In 2010, a bad "post-financial crisis" era.
When the economic policies of major countries are tightening, those countries that rely on international trade to grow up are even more devastated, such as South American countries, which are facing the danger of bankruptcy of state assets.
Against the backdrop of such an era, the South American country of Uruguay just completed a new round of general elections as the new president of Jose. Muhika, coming soon.
Many international commentators are not optimistic about the new president of Uruguay.
Because the change of government at the time of economic depression will only further deteriorate the national economy, and then let politics and economy fall into a two-sided dispute.
But what the world did not expect was that Mujica used a simple sentence to solve serious political disputes.
"In elections, 'there are no winners and no losers' because everyone is a member of the extended family."
This phrase not only conveys the policy of multiparty alliance after Muhica came to power, but also comforts the parties that lost the election campaign.
This has enabled Uruguay, in times of crisis, to complete the political transition in a peaceful and united manner, which is of great significance.
In addition, after Muhica took office, he also showed a strong ability to govern.
He first made a big increase in public financial expenditures, and did his best to ensure the soundness of education, running water, electricity and sanitation facilities, which greatly improved the living environment of the Uruguayan people.
At the same time, a large amount of investment in education has also allowed Uruguayan talents to emerge, and all walks of life have erupted into a strong development vitality.
Later, on this basis, Mujica adjusted the social tax structure, not only tightening the gap between the rich and the poor in Uruguay, but also giving the government more construction funds at its disposal.
What is even more remarkable is that since taking office, Mujica has been increasing trade with the mainland, and in contrast, it is the shrinking trade with the United States.
This is mainly because Mujica believes that the so-called "consumption promotion theory" in the West will only lead the national economy into the abyss. On the contrary, China's equal trading system can make the national economy have the vitality of sustainable development.
And the facts also proved the correctness of Muhika's choice.
At that time, all the countries in South America that trusted the West were strangled by the United States, while Uruguay relied on Chinese trade and became a middle developed country in the world.
Moreover, under the leadership of Mujica, Uruguay has lifted a large number of people out of poverty, and the whole country has entered a benign "rugby-shaped" society, that is, a social structure with a smaller group of people at both ends of the rich and the poor and a large number of middle-level people.
As a result, Uruguay quickly escaped the effects of the financial crisis, and this "rapidity" even surpassed that of the United States, which is also in the Americas, which has amazed countless people.
However, it is such a president whose life has not "improved" with Uruguay.
As mentioned earlier, Mujica still lives in the dilapidated manor, but he himself is very satisfied with it, even a little proud.
As for why Mushika is such a "strange" person, everything depends on his own origins.
Athletes were born and resolutely worked for the national revolution
José Mujica was born on May 20, 1935, in a suburb of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
At that time, South America was still very backward overall, so the economic situation of the Mujica family was also stretched.
The food grown by Muhika's family was barely enough for a large family to wrap their stomachs, and the excess allowance was obtained by Muhika's mother selling the flowers she grew.
This also allows Muhika to develop a self-reliant and self-reliant personality since he was a child.
From the time of his understanding, Mujica helped his mother grow flowers, and when he was a little older, He went to work in a bakery in Montevideo, earning a low salary to supplement the family.
However, although the Mujica family is in difficulty, they always have hope in their hearts.
Her mother was very happy to see Mujica work in a bakery, and she thought that Mujica would be able to become a baker in the future.
In this way, Mujica will not have to continue to live this hard life of "facing the loess and turning his back to the sky".
Mujica himself, who is also full of hope for life, goes to work in the city's bakery on time every day.
In order to help her mother do more farm work, Mujica also practiced the speed of cycling, which saved a lot of time on the road.
However, Mujica's increasingly sophisticated riding skills have opened up a new path for him to -—— professional cyclist.
Mujica's daily galloping on the outskirts of the capital attracted the attention of a local cycling club, and the club's coaches sensed Mujica's riding talent.
As a result, he recruited Mujica to his clubs, making Himika a cyclist in South America and participating in many international competitions.
Perhaps it is the influence of participating in international competitions that has made Mujica reflect a lot on the future development of the country.
Especially after the emergence of government dictatorship in Uruguay, Mujica realized that Uruguay desperately needed a reform to change its own situation of poverty and civil strife.
At that time, in the fifties after the end of World War II, there was a wave of communism in the international community, and Cuba, as the "vanguard of the Americas", brought this "social wind" to Latin America.
In the 1960s, it was also under the influence of this boom that the young Mujica resolutely joined Uruguayan society and became the head of some affairs of the party by virtue of his outstanding personal ability.
At that time, Mujica also traveled to the Soviet Union as a representative of the Uruguayan Socialist Party to participate in Khrushchev's "Youth Congress" in Moscow.
At the Moscow Congress, Muhika met with Khrushchev and saw the strength of the Soviet Union under the banner of socialism, which made him realize the importance of the country's strong military strength.
In 1962, at the end of the "Youth Congress" in Moscow, he went to Beijing on the mainland as a guest to visit, and met the great leader Chairman Mao at the Great Hall of the People.
After a brief stop in China, he immediately changed his route to Cuba to further study the actual revolutionary path in the Americas.
During his time in Havana, Cuba, Mujica was inspired.
If studying in the Soviet Union and China established a revolutionary "world outlook" for him, then a visit to Cuba allowed him to establish a revolutionary "methodology."
In particular, che Guevara's guerrilla resistance made Mujica realize that the revolution was not an empty "partisan struggle", but rather an armed protest, so that the opposition could listen to its own voice.
After several twists and turns, life and death hovered
After embracing a firm revolutionary mindset, Mujica first focused on learning guerrilla tactics in Cuba, and also met with Fidel Castro, the first supreme leader of Cuba, here, and got a lot of inspiration.
In 1969, after returning to Uruguay, Mujica immediately joined the Tupamaros guerrillas, making full use of the forests and countryside to engage in guerrilla warfare against pro-American government forces.
Although the government army, well-equipped with U.S. funding, in the jungles and backward villages, advanced weapons and equipment are difficult to use too much.
As a result, Mujica and his guerrilla comrades often succeeded, which caused headaches for the government army.
However, many victories also made the guerrillas begin to be a little blind, and on October 8 of the same year, they actually had to fight a decisive battle with the government forces in the Uruguayan industrial city of Pando.
They hope that through this war, they will take over the ownership of the city and thus "come out on top" on the anniversary.
However, Pando is a city after all, and government troops have been stationed here for many years and are familiar with the terrain of the city. This terrain advantage made the guerrillas suffer a big loss.
After all, most of the guerrillas were unfamiliar with the urban environment, and in the Pando city street battles, the "Tupamaros" guerrillas had no advantage at all.
On the contrary, the light and heavy machine guns and mortars in the hands of the government army became the winning point of the defensive street battles, and the guerrillas could not organize an effective attack in the rain of bullets.
After several setbacks in a row, most of the guerrillas involved in the decisive battle were either killed or captured, leaving only Mujica and a hundred other guerrillas hiding in the city.
Seeing that most of the guerrillas had been eliminated, the government forces threw heavy troops into the encirclement of the guerrillas.
During this period, the living environment of the guerrillas was extremely harsh, and not only lacked medical conditions, but even food and clothing became a major problem.
Many guerrillas, unable to bear this dark life, chose to flee. But Mujica never thought of this, he was bent on revolution, vowing to revolutionize uruguay to the end.
However, the defeat in the Battle of Pando city was already decided, and holding on to it would only deplete the revolutionary forces, so after some discussion, Mujica and his hundred guerrillas decided to temporarily retreat and try to achieve great things when the forces were strong.
In March 1970, after withdrawing from Pando, Mujica came to the northern Uruguayan city of Taga Colombo, deciding to take shelter here and return to the countryside to develop his forces when the situation was stable.
What Mujica did not know was that they had long been betrayed by traitors, that his portraits had been archived in the government, and that wanted guerrillas were all over Uruguay.
It is precisely because of this "ignorance" that Mujica and his party were recognized by the local police when they drank in the bar.
In order to cover the retreat of his team members, Mujica decisively drew his gun to confront the police and fight for the escape time of his teammates.
After a shoot-out battle, Muhica fell in a pool of blood with six shots, but he was not killed, and the Uruguayan authorities pulled him back from the line of life and death, characterized him as a rebel, and sentenced him to life imprisonment for treason.
Because it was a "life sentence", the attitude of the prison guards towards Mujica was very bad.
After all, everyone thought that Mujica would not survive, and his days in prison were in vain.
Mujica's "hellish life" took a turn for the worse in 1985.
This year was the peak of the Cold War, and the United States had no time to take care of the situation in South America, which made the South American countries begin to develop in the direction of public opinion.
This development of "democratization" forced Uruguay's previous military government to step down, and the democratically elected government began to appear on the Uruguayan political stage.
The democratically elected government, in order to gain the support of all factions, after the overthrow of the junta, released all the so-called "political prisoners" in prison, thus gaining the trust of all parties.
Mushika, on the other hand, was pardoned and was able to get out of hell and breathe the air of freedom. By this time, he had spent 14 years in prison.
After his release from prison, Mujica wanted to devote himself to the construction of Uruguay as soon as possible.
But when he was imprisoned, he was so embarrassed by the severe skin and respiratory diseases that he had to rest for a year.
"Abandoning force and following the text" and considering the people
Using this year's recuperation time, Mujica looked around at the people's livelihood in Uruguay and used the eyes of ordinary people to discover the difficulties encountered by the Uruguayan people.
At the same time, Mujica also contacted his former comrades-in-arms and comrades, and after recovering from the disease, he and a group of like-minded comrades formed a legitimate political party, the "People's Participation Party".
This also means that Muhika's political skills have been completely transformed, and the transformation of "abandoning force and following the text" has been completed.
Subsequently, Mujica led the People's Participation Party in Uruguayan politics, merging many parties with the same demands, and absorbing many talents, and the People's Participation Party gradually grew.
Since the PJP had already recruited countless members by this time, they covered all walks of life in Uruguay, even including people of different factions.
As a result, muhica's Popular Participation Party was further restructured into a "broad front" and became a powerful party in Uruguay.
However, the growth of the party in his hands did not make Mujica lose his way, and he was still single-mindedly focused on the cause of the people's welfare. This is also the consistent aim of the "broad front".
Under the influence of its purpose, the "broad front" began to become the faith of the lower middle class of Uruguay, and everyone trusted the new party that represented the people, led by Mujica.
As a result, after four years of operation, the "broad front" successfully entered the Uruguayan Senate and officially became a parliamentary party.
It also gave Mujica, a broad platform that allowed him to better speak for his people.
In addition, Mujica's early experience of being put on "death row" by the military government but not yielding also made the Uruguayan people worship and many Uruguayan politicians admire.
This made Mujica more famous, and even became a representative of the left in Uruguayan politics.
At that time, the factional strife in Uruguayan politics was fierce, the right wing with US economic assistance gradually weakened after losing the support of the United States, and the neutral faction lost the trust of the people because it did not do much.
On the contrary, the radical reformist left represented by Mujica began to grow and relied on absolute superiority to successfully elect Uruguay's first leftist president, Vázquez, in 2004.
Mujica was also appointed Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.
However, Mujica was not blinded by his political status. After the blind failures of the past, Mujica has always kept a clear head.
After taking up his position as minister, he has always regarded the interests of the people as the only benchmark, and in his eyes, everything should be "subservient" to the interests of the Uruguayan people.
In 2009, President Vázquez left office at the end of his term, which means that Uruguayan politics will fight in a "left-center-right" war, and everyone is gearing up to compete for the presidency of Uruguay.
But just as the leftist party was scrambling to find a candidate, Mujica suddenly announced a shocking news - resigning as a minister and running for president.
Mushika's decision not only shocked his comrades-in-arms, but even a number of political enemies.
At this time, Mujica was 74 years old, and he also became Uruguay's oldest presidential candidate.
Muhika's campaign, however, did not reveal the cunning of a seasoned politician. On the contrary, he has always been a bit of a breeze for the campaign.
While the other candidates were "drawing bread", Mujica always had only one sentence:
"Let Uruguay serve the poor".
In addition, Mujica is to go deep into the grassroots and mingle with the people at the bottom.
Through witty and humorous words, he won the favor of countless people, and everyone felt that Mujica was very close to the people and trustworthy, and affectionately called him "Pepe".
At that time, Muhika always went deep into the grassroots, either by taking public transportation or walking, which made Muhika's friends a little "can't see it".
So Mujica's comrades and friends crowdfunded and bought him a blue Volkswagen "Beetle" car.
Originally, Mujica was reluctant to accept it, but everyone said that it was a "witness of friendship", and he reluctantly accepted the car.
Since then, Uruguay has had a Volkswagen Beetle car, always in and out of the field.
What is even more rare is that Mujica never attacked other parties during the campaign, which made Mujica's reputation in politics excellent.
In the end, in the 2009 election, Mujica defeated his rivals with 52% support and was elected Uruguay's new president. At the same time, he became the second leftist president.
Subsequently, there was the aforementioned "only words to explain the past", and Uruguay's economic reversal in the face of adversity.
This also means that the Uruguayan people, under the leadership of Mujica, are officially moving towards prosperity and well-off.
Personal total assets of $1800
But after Uruguay had generally become moderate, Mujica himself still lived on an old farm, and even drove the extremely worn blue beetle.
Mujica himself did not have the slightest presidential "pomp", compared to the elite guards and personal bodyguards of the presidents of other Countries in the Americas, Mujica's guards had only two guards.
As for the "personal bodyguard", it is even more "bitter", Mujica's personal bodyguard has only a three-legged dog "Manuela" standing guard for him.
These two people and a dog formed Mujica's usual "presidential pomp and circumstance".
Even more shocking was the fact that a backpacker who had traveled to Montevideo had even hit Mujica's hitchhiker in the suburbs.
At the time, the backpacker hadn't noticed the incident until Mujica turned back to talk to him and he realized that the President of Uruguay was driving for himself.
He suddenly became a little restless, and this became a beautiful talk in Uruguayan society.
But muhika's contrast has led some people to have unfounded assumptions, they think that Muhika is "pretending to be poor", in fact, the family has already saved a huge amount of assets.
In 2010, in the face of these groundless "conspiracy theory" accusations, the usually mild-mannered Mujica could not help but be a little angry, and he ordered multiple departments in Uruguay to count his assets together and disclose them without return.
After a few days of statistics from officials, Uruguayan officials announced Mujica's total assets of $1,800. Half of them came from this Volkswagen Beetle.
Even the farm where he had been living was not Muhika's, but his wife's property.
Such a finding shocked the whole country of Uruguay, and everyone began to question where the president's money had gone.
Soon the Uruguayan authorities answered the question, and it turned out that after being elected president, Mujica's monthly salary was actually 11,000 US dollars.
But he donated 90 percent of his salary to charitable foundations for poverty alleviation efforts for poor people, leaving himself with only $1,500 in living expenses.
This fact has earned Mujica the respect of the whole country of Uruguay and the admiration of all countries.
End
Muhika's reign did not come to an end until March 2015, when he was in his old age and white-haired.
Mr. and Mrs. Mujica, childless all their lives. In his heart, the poor people of Uruguay may be their children.
Moreover, Mujica's words were not empty words, and after leaving office, Mujica re-elected to the Parliament and continued to work for the welfare of the poor in Uruguay.
This "conspiracy" will reach 2020, when Muhika is 85 years old.
He has lost all of his former energy, can no longer really visit the middle and lower classes, and even has no strength to sit in the Senate for a long time.
So, eventually, in that year, he opted out of politics.
He refused a hefty pension and continued to live on a farm in the countryside, living the same frugal life as before:
Dogs are planted every day, and when they have strength, they drive tractors to the ground to cultivate.
Mujica disagreed with the rumored title of "poorest president", and he was very calm about it, and said calmly:
"I'm not poor, and the one who says I'm poor is really poor." It's true to say that I only have a few things, but frugality makes me feel very rich. ”
Apparently, Mujica has taken the position of "president" to a new level.
Uruguayans, should be proud and proud to have a President Mujica.