For the Uruguayan leader, a longtime icon of the Latin American left, economic fairness was inseparable from human decency.

I t is not a flashy country and José Mujica, who died on May 13th aged 89, became its epitome. As Uruguay’s president from 2010 to 2015 he continued to drive a battered sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle and to lunch in workaday bars on the main street of Montevideo,

In his condolence message on the occasion of the notable Uruguayan leader, José ‘Pepe’ Mujica, the Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, emphasised: ‘His extraordinary life recalls the dark era of Washington-backed military dictatorships’.