José Mujica: Guerilla, president and occasional romantic

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Remembering the former president of Uruguay: José 'Pepe' Mujica. He started life as a flower farmer on the outskirts of Montevideo. As a young man he became politically active, part of the left-wing guerilla group the Tupamaros, who were bent on revolution through armed struggle that involved bank heists and kidnappings. With the authorities on his tail Pepe was eventually captured, he was shot six times and later staged what became a record-breaking prison escape. When he was captured and imprisoned again, he was held for 13 years in horrendous conditions but he says the pain and loneliness of that time was when he learned the most about life. A year after the military regime stepped down, Pepe was released and joined formal politics and in 2010 he was voted in as president of Uruguay. He shunned the presidential palace and car for his crumbling farmhouse and old VW Beetle and brought in laws legalising gay marriage and abortion. He had his critics but when he died earlier this month, thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects. We spoke to Pepe alongside his wife Lucia Topolansky in 2023 and they talked about how their love had changed over their decades together.

Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Louise Morris

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, it's Lucy Wersley here and we're back with a brand new series of ladies swindlers.
0:07.5	Promise never to mention a word of what is going on.
0:10.0	Join me and my all-female team of detectives as we revisit the audacious crimes of women trying to make it in a world made for men.
0:19.4	This is a story of working class women trying to get by in a world made for men. This is a story of working-class women trying to get by.
0:24.3	This is survival.
0:25.3	Join me for the second season of Lady Swindlers, where true crime meets history with a twist.
0:31.3	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.2	How often do you get to hear a former president speak about the nature of love like this?
0:42.8	I have to be grateful for life.
0:46.9	Grateful that I am alive because I have Lucia by my side, who helps me to live.
0:57.0	Love when you're young, it's a bonfire, it's a whirlwind.
1:06.0	Love, when you're an old man, it's a sweet habit.
1:15.4	For that, I feel grateful.
1:23.3	Jose Moghika or Pepe, as he prefers to be called,
1:25.0	burned bright in life.
1:29.7	When he died earlier this month at the age of 89, the people of Uruguay came out in force. For eight kilometres, the streets were lined with people wanting to pay
1:35.8	their respects as his coffin passed by. You're listening to Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service.
1:50.4	I'm Andrea Kennedy.
1:52.7	Pipe Mujica led the most extraordinary life,
1:56.3	bringing landmark changes to his country,
1:59.5	making headlines for shunning presidential palaces and cars
2:03.4	for his single-story cottage and old clapped-out VW. As a younger man, he'd earned himself
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.