He doesn't want a jet, he doesn't need a luxury boat, he is not fixated on having homes around the world. He doesn't like wearing designer suits or crocodile skin shoes. He doesn't want to celebrate his birthday with a party in Dubia, black tie dinner in London or vacation in Paris.This is the story of the world's poorest president.President Jose Mujica of Uruguay has shunned the luxurioushouse that the Uruguay state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo. Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 to charity."I have lived like this most of my life and I can live well with that," he said. In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration was $1,800, the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. His charitable donations- which benefit poor people and small enterpreneurs, means his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $775 a month.
Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan guerilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution. He was shot six times andspent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.
Those years in jail, Mujica says , helped shape his outlook on life. "I am called the poorest president but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more. This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possession then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them,and therefore you have more time for yourself," he says
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