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He spent 14 years in a military prison. Much of it in utter isolation.

When José “Pepe” Mujica finally got out, he didn’t want things. He wanted time.

So when he was elected president of Uruguay in 2010, he refused to move into the luxurious presidential palace. He stayed on his dirt-road flower farm outside Montevideo. He kept his three-legged dog, Manuela. He drove his own 1987 Volkswagen Beetle to work.

He gave away 90% of his state salary to charity because he realised that keeping the money meant he would have to spend his life maintaining the things he bought with it.

The media called him the world’s poorest president. Mujica disagreed. He said the poor ones were the people working themselves to death to fund expensive lifestyles they didn’t even have time to enjoy.

He died on May 13 at the age of 89. He left behind almost nothing. Exactly as he intended.