For the Uruguayan leader, a longtime icon of the Latin American left, economic fairness was inseparable from human decency.

I t is not a flashy country and José Mujica, who died on May 13th aged 89, became its epitome. As Uruguay’s president from 2010 to 2015 he continued to drive a battered sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle and to lunch in workaday bars on the main street of Montevideo,

José Mujica was often bemused by the label of “world’s poorest president”. The Uruguayan former guerrilla fighter drew global camera crews to the tiny nation throughout his 2010-15 term by forgoing the presidential palace for his small farmhouse and government cars for his ageing Volkswagen Beetle.