MEET the World’s 'Poorest' President who Lives on a Farm & Whose Official car is a 1987 Beetle! [Photos]

He lives on a farm, and his official car is
a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. He donates
90% of his monthly salary to charity.
President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, is not
your average president.
It is commonplace to see some presidents
of countries living lavish lifestyles, and
in some extreme cases, looting their
countries’ finances for personal gain.
But not Mujica.
He is commonly known as the world’s
“poorest” president because of his
austere lifestyle.
Mujica rejected the luxurious
presidential residence the government
provided for him and instead opted to
live on his wife’s farm located on a dirt
road outside the country’s capital. They
have no domestic workers – they do all
the farm work by themselves. The only
staff they have are two police officers.
In 2010, his annual personal wealth
declaration – mandatory for officials in
Uruguay – was $1,800, the value of his
Beetle.
In an interview with BBC, he said:
“I’ve lived like this most of my life,
I can live well with what I have
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
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…”
Mujica also has unique views about
poverty alleviation. In the 2012 Rio+20
summit he stated:
But what are we thinking? Do we
want the model of development and
consumption of the rich countries?
I ask you now: what would happen
to this planet if Indians would have
the same proportion of cars per
household than Germans? How
much oxygen would we have left?
“Does this planet have enough
resources so seven or eight billion
can have the same level of
consumption and waste that today
is seen in rich societies? It is this
level of hyper-consumption that is
harming our planet.
An Arab sheikh recently offered him $1
million for his Beetle. Mujica is currently
considering the offer, and says that if he
does sell it, he will donate the money to
charity.