10 Reasons to Love Uruguay’s President José Mujica
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/15-1President José Mujica of Uruguay, a 78-year-old former Marxist guerrilla who spent 14 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, recently visited the United States to meet with President Obama and speak at a variety of venues. He told Obama that Americans should smoke less and learn more languages. He lectured a roomful of businessmen at the US Chamber of Commerce about the benefits of redistributing wealth and raising workers’ salaries. He told students at American University that there are no “just wars.” Whatever the audience, he spoke extemporaneously and with such brutal honesty that it was hard not to love the guy. Here are 10 reasons you, too, should love President Mujica.
2. He supported the nation’s groundbreaking legalization of marijuana. “In no part of the world has repression of drug consumption brought results. It’s time to try something different,” Mujica said. So this year, Uruguay became the first country in the world to regulate the legal production, sale, and consumption of marijuana. The law allows individuals to grow a certain amount each year and the government controls the price of marijuana sold at pharmacies. The law requires consumers, sellers, and distributors to be licensed by the government. Uruguay’s experience aims to take the market away from the ruthless drug traffickers and treat drug addiction as a public health issue. Their experiment will have reverberations worldwide.
3. In August 2013, Mujica signed the bill making Uruguay the second nation in Latin America (after Argentina) to legalize gay marriage. He said that legalizing gay marriage is simply recognizing reality. “Not to legalize it would be unnecessary torture for some people,” he said. In recent years, Uruguay has also moved to allow adoption by gay couples and openly gay people to serve in the armed forces.
7. He has focusing on redistributing his nation’s wealth, claiming that his administration has reduced poverty from 37% to 11%. “Businesses just want to increase their profits; it’s up to the government to make sure they distribute enough of those profits so workers have the money to buy the goods they produce,” he told businessmen at the US Chamber of Commerce. “It’s no mystery--the less poverty, the more commerce. The most important investment we can make is in human resources.” His government’s redistributive policies include setting prices for essential commodities such as milk and providing free computers and education for every child.
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Wednesday, May 14th 2014 - 02:54 UTC
Prison inmate taps into the cellular phone of US ambassador in Uruguay
A prisoner in Uruguay tapped into the U.S. ambassador's cell-phone and sent messages to some of her contacts in an attempt to commit a still undisclosed fraud, authorities said Tuesday, although the news was on the media a day before.
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Police are trying to find out how Ambassador
Julissa Reynoso's cell-phone was tapped [/font]
Officials said the inmate at the Maldonado prison got Ambassador Julissa Reynoso's voice mail password and gained access to her voice messages.
“Using that, he got access to some messages left by some of my friends. And he was able to — I don't know how — send certain messages from prison to some of my contacts,” Reynoso, who is in the U.S. accompanying Uruguayan President Jose Mujica on his official visit, told Uruguay's Canal 10 TV.
Reynoso played down the importance of the information accessed by the inmate, whose identity was not revealed. The channel said the ambassador and the embassy's security officer filed a complaint with Uruguay's interior ministry.
The case was first reported by FM Gente radio station in the southern city of Maldonado. The station said police discovered the inmate had access to the ambassador's phone while investigating him for other frauds committed while in prison.
More:
http://en.mercopress.com/2014/05/14/prison-inmate-taps-into-the-cellular-phone-of-us-ambassador-in-uruguay
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Uruguayan prisoner taps cellphone of U.S. ambassador
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 8:56pm
A prisoner in Uruguay has tapped into the U.S. ambassador's cellphone and sent messages to some of her contacts. Officials said Tuesday that the inmate had access to Ambassador Julissa Reynoso's voice messages. Reynoso is in the United States, joining President Jose Mujica on his official visit to Washington, D.C. She told Uruguay's Canal 10 TV that the inmate used her voice mail password and sent messages to some of her contacts.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/uruguayan-prisoner-taps-cellphone-of-us-ambassador/2179635
(Short article, no more at link.)