PREVIEW: Former guerrilla fighter wants to be Uruguay's next leader

Oct 22, 2009, 16:16 GMT

Montevideo - What happens when a former guerrilla fighter lashes out at the 600 most important business people in his country? One might expect an uproar.

In Uruguay, however, Jose Mujica - once a dreaded Tupamaru rebel and now presidential candidate of the ruling Frente Amplio leftist coalition - gets applause, ahead of Sunday's general election.

'I am not here to pick up votes. I already have rather more than enough of those,' the outspoken politician told businessmen.

'The trade unions sometimes run riot,' he added, to roaring applause. 'But you do, too.'

For Mujica, 74, such impudence reaped many laughs and was a success in his fight for the centre of the political spectrum.

'We will win the election, and you will simply have to put up with it. You'll shed a tear or two, but the country will remain stable,' the unorthodox, grandfatherly candidate said.

Opinion polls show Mujica likely to fall short of the 50-per-cent threshold needed to avoid a second round. But he looks well- positioned to win in the event of a runoff, which would be held on November 29 between the top two first-round finishers.

While many question his revolutionary past, most of his critics still prefer him over the alternatives. Mujica's running mate is a more mainstream figure, his previous rival in the Frente Amplio primary, former economy minister Danilo Astori.

'He is the pill to calm down the conservative centre,' says analyst Juan Carlos Doyenart.

The conservative opposition around National Party candidate Luis Alberto Lacalle - who was previously president from 1990-95 - has yet to find an antidote for the Mujica phenomenon.

Lacalle, 69, made trouble for himself when he spoke of Mujica's humble home as 'a hole' and 'a cave' - from his own luxury home in Montevideo. This put him at loggerheads with a majority of the population, who also live modestly.

He caused another stir when he suggested making haircuts and showers available to residents of the country's slums, known as 'cantegriles.'

There are many reasons behind the electoral phenomenon around Mujica in Uruguay, a small country squeezed between Brazil and Argentina.

Mujica was part of a generation of leftists who took up arms in the late 1960s and found themselves hunted down, tortured and in many cases killed by the 1973-85 military dictatorship.

'In the wake of the dream of sharing more, we ended up sharing less,' the amateur gardener said.

Having since turned away from Marxism, Mujica told the business audience that he knows the ABCs of successful economic policy: keeping a market economy, guaranteeing private property, protecting investment and, above all, setting clear rules.

'I probably should not be telling you this, but I know you really want me to say it,' he said, as the entrepreneurs roared with laughter.

The Frente took power for the first time in 2004, and outgoing President Tabare Vazquez led a successful reformist government that has retained the support of about 60 per cent of the population.

Mujica's wife, Lucia Topolanky, herself a former guerrilla fighter, has stressed that a lot still needs to be done to consolidate reform.

Agriculture instead of speculation, no exploitation of man by man, social justice and equal opportunities: these are ideals from Mujica's time as a guerrilla fighter that still fit his planned policies, Topolansky said.

On election day, voters will be asked to decide a referendum on the removal of amnesty for military and police officers who committed crimes during the dictatorship.