Uruguay’s immediate former President José “Pepe” Mujica became an instant celebrity in 2012 after BBC published a feature documenting his austere lifestyle and detailing his past.

A former guerrilla fighter who spent 14 years in jail — more than 10 of them in solitary confinement and two of them in the bottom of a well — Mujica later swore off violence and became a successful politician of the leftwing Broad Front.

“Years ago, we used to think that there were good wars and bad wars,” Mujica told students at American University in May. “Good wars were the ones supported by a just and noble cause, for processes of liberation.

Today, with all of our technological and scientific knowledge, war — whatever its tendency — ends up becoming a sacrifice for the weakest people in society… The worst negotiation is better than the best war. That’s what I think now, because I know the pain and sacrifice of war.”

Mujica’s international presence was solidified in 2013, as he became famous for legalising the marijuana trade, a pioneering effort at reining in the power of drug traffickers and transitioning toward treating drug abuse as a public health issue rather than a criminal one. Even in democracies, few people elected to the presidency live anything like the majority of people whom they are elected to represent.

Part of the reason why Mujica gained international celebrity status was that his humble lifestyle and folksy aphorisms struck a nerve in a world where prominent politicians live more luxurious pampered lives than any of us can imagine. Mujica’s term ended late last year and was succeeded by former president Tabare Vazquez. Reasons he will be missed…

He lives on a farm, instead of a mansion

Uruguay’s president says he likes to keep his life simple so he can enjoy the things he likes to do, like working on his flower farm. He continued to live there, without servants rather than the presidential palace. “I’ve lived like this most of my life,” Mujica told the BBC in 2012. “I can live well with what I have.”

Legalised marijuana sale

Uruguay’s trailblazing president signed legislation in 2013 creating the world’s first national, government-regulated marijuana market. Mujica championed the idea, saying it would wrest power away from drug cartels and allow the government to focus on the issue as a public health matter rather than a criminal one.

“We ask the world to help us create this experience,” Mujica told Brazilian daily A Folha de São Paulo. “It will allow us to adopt a socio-political experiment to address the serious problem of drug trafficking… the effect of the drug traffic is worse than the drug.”

Is actually a public servant

Dubbed the “world’s poorest president” by the BBC, Mujica donated 90 percent of his salary to charity and lives a modest life. How many Kenyan politicians, who claim to serve the public, can say the same?

Drives a Volkswagen Beetle

An Arab Sheik offered Mujica $1 million (Sh90m) for his 1987 Beetle. Mujica turned the offer down. “We could never sell it,” Mujica said in November. “We would offend all those friends who pooled together to buy it for us.”

Lives with his three-legged dog, Manuela.

Which is sweet.

Aerosmith met up with Mujica in 2013, offering an autographed guitar as a gift. Mujica put the guitar up for auction to raise money to build housing. “It’s signed by all of them and that surely has a lot of value,” Mujica said, noting that he’s not much of a guitar player. “That instrument must have been invented by an anarchist who was also drunk, because it’s very difficult.”

Wore sandals to state functions

That’s Mujica on Dec. 26, 2013, at the swearing in ceremony for his new finance minister, Mario Bergara.

Awesomely quotable

A self-proclaimed “campesino with common sense,” Mujica has a way of spouting off the kind of philosophical nuggets you want to put as your screen saver.

Gave the UN a piece of his mind

When the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, a UN agency, accused Uruguay of refusing to meet with the board’s officials before legalising weed, Mujica didn’t mince his words. “Tell this old guy not to lie,” Mujica told reporters, referring to INCB president Raymond Yans. “Any guy in the street can meet with me.

Let him come to Uruguay and meet with me whenever he wants… He thinks because he’s in an international position, he can tell whatever lie he wants.” For its part, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime criticised Uruguay for legalising the marijuana trade, while heaping praise on anti-drug efforts in Iran — a country that executes drug dealers.

Hates neckties for all the right reasons

Mujica’s lack of formality isn’t limited to footwear. In an interview with Spanish journalist Jordi Evole, Mujica raged against the necktie, calling it a symbolism of consumerism.

“The tie is a useless rag that constrains your neck,” Mujica said. “I’m an enemy of consumerism. Because of this hyperconsumerism, we’re forgetting about fundamental things and wasting human strength on frivolities that have little to do with human happiness.”

His wife? Same same!

In the words of journalist Will Carless, writing for the Global Post, Mujica’s wife Lucía Topolansky is a “senator, ex-guerrilla, prison escapee, torture survivor, blonde-bombshell-turned-wild-haired, farm-living, hard-as-nails first lady.”

About FIFA… ‘bunch of old sons of bitches’

Asked by a television reporter how he felt about the FIFA’s expulsion of Uruguayan star striker Luis Suárez for biting, Mujica gave an unfiltered response.

“The FIFA is a bunch of old sons of bitches,” Mujica said, then clasping his hand over his mouth as if the words had accidentally slipped out. Unsure whether to broadcast the comments, sports journalist Sergio Gorzy asked Mujica for permission. “If it’s up to me, publish it,” Mujica said.

- Huffingtonpost