Uruguayan president Jose Mujica has been dubbed as the
'poorest president' in the world, as he lives on a ramshackle farm
and is known for giving away 90 percent of his earnings to
charity.
The charismatic 77-year-old has refused to adapt his lifestyle
to embrace the trappings of power that come with being the
country's figurehead, and instead continues to live at the farm
situated a few miles away from the country's capital city of
Montevideo.
The only sign the country's leader is at home are the pair of
police officers who stand guard at the end of his heavily
tractor-rutted dirt track, the Daily Mail reports.
According to the paper, Mujica gives 90 per cent of his monthly
salary, the equivalent of 7,500 pounds, away to charity leaving him
with just 485 pounds a month to live off.
The part-time farmer's proudest and most valuable possessions are
his tired-looking Volkswagen Beetle and his three-legged dog
Manuela, the paper said.
He gets water from a well surrounded by overgrown weeds and his
laundry goes to a washing line outside instead of a tumble
dryer.
The president's austere lifestyle is a world away from that of
many politicians in the UK who have been caught out trying to
unethically and in some cases illegally boost their incomes by
fiddling their expenses, the paper added.
