Jose Mujica, Uruguay’s former leader, rebel icon and cannabis reformer, dead at 89

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Jose Mujica, a one-time guerrilla and later president of Uruguay who drove a beat-up VW Beetle and enacted progressive reforms that carried his reputation well beyond South America, has died aged 89.

The straight-talking Mujica, known to many Uruguayans by his nickname “Pepe,” led the small farming country’s leftist government from 2010 to 2015 after convincing voters his radical past was a closed chapter.

“It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death...