Ex-rebel Mujica is Uruguay’s next president
Agence France-Presse
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay—Former president Luis Lacalle conceded defeat in the country’s presidential run-off Sunday to ex-rebel Jose Mujica.
The conservative candidate, who governed the country between 1990 and 1995, addressed supporters after exit polls showed he had won some 44 percent to Mujica’s 51 percent.
Some 2.3 million people were eligible to vote in the Sunday poll, triggered after an October first-round vote in which neither candidate won an absolute majority.
Mujica led that vote, and polls ahead of the run-off election showed him leading Lacalle.
A co-founder and former member of the radical leftist Tupamaros movement, Mujica has sparked consternation among some conservatives in Uruguay, particularly as he has not hidden his admiration for bombastic leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
But Mujica, who also goes by his nickname “Pepe,” named a pragmatic former finance minister his running mate and has pledged to follow the economic policies of popular outgoing President Tabare Vazquez.
