Una oveja negra al poder. Pepe Mujica, la politica de la gente / A Black Sheep i n Power: Pepe Mujica, a Different Kind of Politician - Ernesto Tulbovitz

&La poltica es la lucha por la felicidad de todos.Jos Mujica.

Apenas cinco aos como presidente de un pas tan pequeo como Uruguay han bastado para convertir a Jos Mujica en una figura respetada en todo el mundo; un poltico distinto que representa otra manera de ejercer la poltica y el poder, ms cercana a la gente y al sentido comn. Porque como dije Mujica, &los polticos tenemos que vivir como vive la mayora, no como vive la minora.Mujica, que siempre se ha sentido una oveja negra, y que pas ms de trece aos en la crcel por su militancia poltica, explica en estas pginas su trayectoria hasta llegar al poder, los conflictos con su liturgia y protocolo, el encuentro con figuras como Obama, Fidel Castro, Putin, Chvez o Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, la soledad de sentirse a veces en un mundo ajeno.

Es un relato con un ritmo vertiginoso, producto de ms de cien horas de conversaciones hogareas e institucionales, polticas e ntimas, personales y telefnicas. Todas ellas mantenidas entre el despacho presidencial y la mitad del campo, en escenarios tan dismiles como la Casa Blanca, El Vaticano, la charca de Mujica en las afueras de Montevideo o una pequea casa reciclada, en la que ninguna tertulia termin antes de la madrugada.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

"Politics is the fight for happiness for all." -Jos Mujica.

Just five years as president of a country as small as Uruguay have been enough to turn Jos Mujica into a respected figure around the world: a different sort of politician who represents a different way of practicing politics and power, closer to the people and to common sense. Because as Mujica says, "politicians have to live like the majority, not the minority."

Mujica, who has always felt himself a black sheep, and who spent more than 13 years in prison for his political militancy, explains his rise to power, the conflicts with his liturgy and protocol, his meetings with people like Obama, Fidel Castro, Putin, Chvez, and Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, and the loneliness of sometimes feeling in a foreign world.

It is a dizzying tale, the product of more than 100 hours of conversations-both cozy and businesslike, political and intimate, in person and via phone. All of them held between the presidential office and the middle of the countryside, in settings as varied as the White House, the Vatican, Mujica's pond in the outskirts of Montevideo, or a small recycled house, in which no social gathering ended before dawn.