Montevideo, Dec 2 (EFE) Jose “Pepe” Mujica, winner of the presidential runoff in Uruguay, said he will alternate his duties as head of state with working the land on his small farm on the outskirts of Montevideo.
“Everybody has his own interests and you have to respect them,” the 74-year-old former guerrilla leader and political prisoner told reporters.
Mujica, candidate of the governing leftist Broad Front, lives in a house with a dirt road in front in the Rincon del Cerro area.
In the last few days, because Mujica was the favourite to win the runoff, work began to improve security around his home, which had an entrance open to practically anyone.
“Pepe” said that after taking office March 1, he will spend at least five hours a week tending the vegetables and flowers he grows on his small spread.
The president-elect, who was jailed and tortured under Uruguay’s 1973-1985 military regime, made his living as a farmer before joining the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros, a guerrilla group active in the early 1970s.
On Oct 25, after voting in the first round of the elections, he went to his farm and was seen driving his tractor with several of his dogs chasing after him.
Mujica is known to be an expert on farming and was minister of stock raising, agriculture and fishing for the current government.
Mujica triumphed over conservative former President Luis Alberto Lacalle by 52.6 percent to 43.3 percent in Sunday’s runoff.
