Last of the Mujicans

At least he is not a limousine leftist;

Uruguay's President Jose Mujica says he's turning down a $1 million offer for his famous 27-year-old Volkswagen Beetle.

Mujica says an Arab sheikh had offered to buy the car, which has become a symbol of Mujica's ostentatiously unpretentious style.

But he told a radio program on Friday that he couldn't sell the sky-blue Volkswagen because it would offend some friends who had given it to him, and he also says he's fond of the car.

But he does know how to put his mouth in reverse;

Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, is backpedaling after calling Mexico a “failed state,” a comment that ruffled diplomatic feathers and caused Mexico to summon Uruguay’s ambassador on Sunday. Mujica issued a statement shortly after the dustup, affirming support for Mexico and confidence in its institutions.

The international spat followed a controversial interview with Mujica published in Foreign Affairs magazine’s Latin America edition Friday. Asked about the turmoil facing Mexico in the aftermath of the kidnapping and apparent murder of 43 students in September, Mujica replied, “It gives one a feeling, viewed from a distance, that this is a kind of failed state, that the public powers have totally lost control; they’ve decayed.”

Just because a Mexican police force turned over some students to a drug lord, to be murdered?

This isn’t the first international gaffe for Uruguay’s president. Last year, Argentina issued a formal complaint against Uruguay after Mujica unknowingly spoke into a live microphone at a press conference, saying, “That old hag’s worse than the cross-eyed one” in reference to Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner.

The 79 year old Mujica will be stepping down when his term ends this year. Qué lástima.