World's poorest president, Uruguay's Mujica steps down

Uruguay's president, Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former guerrilla who lives on a farm and gives most of his salary to charity, is stepping down after five
years in office, ending his term as one of the world's most popular
leaders ever.
Mujica, 79, is leaving office with a 65 percent approval rating. He is
constitutionally prohibited from serving consecutive terms.
"I became president filled with idealism, but then reality hit," Mujica said
in an interview with a local newspaper earlier this week, according to
AFP.
Some call him “the world’s poorest president.” Others the "president
every other country would like to have." But Mujica says "there's still so
much to do" and hopes that the next government, led by Tabare Vazquez
(who was elected president for a second time last November) will be
“better than mine and will have greater success."
Mujica said he succeeded in putting Uruguay on the world map. He
managed to turn the cattle-ranching country, home to 3,4 million people,
into an energy-exporting nation, Brazil being Uruguay’s top export market
(followed by China, Argentina, Venezuela and the US.)
Uruguay's $55 billion economy has grown an average 5.7 percent
annually since 2005, according to the World Bank. Uruguay has
maintained its decreasing trend in public debt-to-GDP ratio – from 100
percent in 2003 to 60 percent by 2014. It has also managed to decrease
the cost of its debt, and reduce dollarization - from 80 percent in 2002 to
50 percent in 2014.
“We’ve had positive years for equality. Ten years ago, about 39 percent
of Uruguayans lived below the poverty line; we’ve brought that down to
under 11 percent and we’ve reduced extreme poverty from 5 percent to
only 0.5 percent,” Mujica told the Guardian in November.
After Latin America’s anti-drug war proved a failure, the South American
country became the first in the world to fully legalize marijuana, with
Mujica arguing that drug trafficking is in fact more dangerous than
marijuana itself.
One of the most progressive leaders in Latin America. Muijica also
legalized abortion and same-sex marriage and agreed to take in
detainees once held at the notorious Guantanamo Bay. Six former US
detainees, who were never charged with a crime, came to Uruguay in
December as refugees. The six included four Syrians, a Palestinian and a
Tunisian. Although they were cleared for release back in 2009, the US
was not able to discharge them until Uruguayan President offered to
receive them.
Mujica, a former leftist Tupamaro guerrilla leader, spent 13 years in jail
during the years of Uruguay's military dictatorship. He survived torture
and endless months of solitary confinement. Majica said he never
regretted his time in jail, which he believes helped shape his character.
Mujica's kindness speaks volumes: He refused to move to Uruguay’s
luxurious presidential mansion to live in a farm outside Montevideo with
his wife and a three-legged dog named Manuela. Pepe gives away about
90 percent of his salary to charity, saying he simply doesn't need it. He
drives an 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.
Last year, Mujica turned down a $1 million offer from an Arab sheik who
offered to buy his blue car. Pepe refused to sell the vehicle, saying it
would offend "all those friends who pooled together to buy it for us.”
In January, a young Uruguayan man posted a message on his Facebook
page recounting how Mujica and his wife picked him up while he was
hitchhiking.
“On Monday, I was looking for a ride from Conchilla and guess who
picked me up on the road?” Gerhald Acosta wrote on his Facebook post
January 7. “They were the only ones who would stop!”
“When I got out, I thanked them profusely because not everyone helps
someone out on the road, and much less a president,” the man told
Uruguay’s El Observador newspaper.