URUGUAY: Front-runner in Presidential election race Jose Mujica out to shed radical past

Record ID: 351569

  • Title: URUGUAY: Front-runner in Presidential election race Jose Mujica out to shed radical past
  • Date: 9th September 2009
  • Summary: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (SEPTEMBER 07, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MUJICA, SAYING: "I identify a lot with Lula. Which is not to say that I look down on the rest of the presidents; each one of them has their distinct make. But I identify a lot with Lula."
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uruguay
  • Country: Uruguay
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2CYPETABJ71BUVV1QRT5JML7C
  • Story Text: Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla leader who is leading Uruguay's presidential race, vows to continue the country's pro-market economic policies in an interview with Reuters.
    Former guerrilla leader Jose Mujica is leading Uruguay's presidential race and is a man trying to shake off his radical past with hopes of keeping the country's leftist ruling coalition in power.
    The 74-year-old blunt-talking senator told Reuters on Monday (September 7) he will leave the country's pro-market economic policies untouched if he wins.
    Recent polls show Mujica leading a field of five candidates in the October 25 election that will choose the successor to popular President Tabare Vazquez, Uruguay's first socialist leader.
    But his guerrilla past has alienated some middle-class voters and business leaders are worried he could spark a sharper turn to the left.
    To allay these fears, Mujica is emphasising continuity and reminding voters he backs Vazquez's economic policies.
    "We are going to continue with the current policies, which are policies will full guarantees that have resulted in record investments in Uruguay," Mujica told Reuters.
    During Uruguay's 12-year dictatorship that ended in 1985, Mujica was imprisoned for guerrilla activities.
    He had been one of the leaders of the Tupamaros, student and labor militants who waged an urban guerrilla war during the 1960s and 70s battling security forces and kidnapping government officials.
    Those 14 years he spent in jail he says really shaped his character.
    "I was in a really difficult situation. They didn't let me read, it was nearly a decade that I didn't read anything. I had to invent things in my head so that I wouldn't go crazy. And I think all of that ended up changing my character and made me look at things in a new way," he said.
    In recent weeks, Mujica has met leaders in Chile and Brazil, hoping to burnish his moderate credentials.
    He says he identifies a lot with Brazil's charismatic president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader who is the most popular president in Brazil's recent history.
    "I identify a lot with Lula. Which is not to say that I look down on the rest of the presidents; each one of them has their distinct make. But I identify a lot with Lula," Mujica said.
    Mujica's political base is among working-class Uruguayans, who are drawn to his plain-talking style.
    A poll released on Monday showed him with 45 percent support, followed by conservative former President Luis Alberto Lacalle on 32 percent.
    If he does not secure more than half of the presidential vote, he would go to a runoff that is seen as a close race with Lacalle.
    Whatever the result, however, he says nothing will "ruffle his feathers".
    "If I win I will have to get involved in all of the organisation that constructing a government implies and so on. But if I lose I will go and harvest spinach on my farm, in my neighbourhood. It won't ruffle my feathers at all; I won't be put off or anything. Because I am at a moment in my life when I don't have anything else to offer except my bones," he said.
    Mujica has tapped Vazquez's former economy minister, Danilo Astori, as his running mate.
    Astori stepped down to run for president last year before losing a party primary to Mujica and has drawn praise from Wall Street for his handling of the largely agricultural economy.
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