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Uruguay's President Mujica Shuns Wealth for Small Farm and VW Beetle
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Fox News
Posted: November 19th, 2012
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/11/15/uruguay...
Uruguays [president] Jos Mujica ... has shunned the countrys Residencia de Surez for the cozy but modest quarters of his small home on the outskirts of the capital, Montevideo. Dubbed by many media organizations as the worlds poorest president, Mujica and his wife keep house on a small farm surrounded by other tiny homes and guarded by only two police officers and his three-legged dog, Manuela. "I've lived like this most of my life," Mujica told the BBC. "I can live well with what I have." Unlike his forebears and counterparts around the world who live in comfort and are chauffeured around in limousines, Mujica donates 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charity organizations benefiting the poor and small businesses, and his means of transport is a beat-up 1987 Volkswagon Beetle worth about $1,800 or the equivalent of his annual personal wealth declaration. This year he bumped his wealth declaration up to $215,000 only after declaring his wifes assets of land, tractors and a house which still pales in comparison to Vice-President Danilo Astori's declared wealth and former President Tabare Vasquezs bank account. I'm 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," Mujica said. "This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself."
Note: For more on this unusual and inspiring president, click here.
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