Uruguay's leftist icon Mujica back to hospital

Uruguay's leftist ex-leader Jose Mujica, battling cancer, was hospitalized Thursday for the fourth time in two weeks, his doctor said.

Once known as the world's "poorest president" for giving away most of his salary and driving an old Volkswagen Beetle, the 89-year-old revealed in April that he was battling a tumor he described at the time as "very compromising."

He was diagnosed the following month with cancer of the esophagus, which his doctor Raquel Pannone said Thursday appeared to be in remission.

But she told reporters in Montevideo that Mujica was rushed to hospital from his ranch on the outskirts of the capital with digestive problems caused by the radiotherapy he had received.

He was rehydrated intravenously, and "is already better," said Pannone.

Mujica was in a general ward, "awake and calm" with his wife Lucia Topolansky by his side, added the doctor.

He will remain hospitalized for several days.

The former guerilla fighter became a cult figure during his 2010-2015 rule, partly for his modest lifestyle.

On his watch, Uruguay passed a number of progressive laws -- legalizing abortion and gay marriage and becoming the first country in the world to allow recreational cannabis use, in 2013.

He remains a figurehead of the Broad Front, the leftist coalition in power from 2005 until it was ousted in 2019 elections by center-right leader Luis Lacalle Pou.

Mujica resigned from frontline politics in 2020, quitting his Senate seat amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying a weakened immune system put him at risk and staying in the office was no alternative to going out and meeting people.

Mujica was part of the MLN-Tupamaros rebels that waged an insurgency during the 1960s and 70s.

Though popular, many Uruguayans blamed them for provoking the 1973 military coup that ushered in a dictatorship that lasted until 1985.

Mujica spent 12 years in prison during that time, much of it in solitary confinement.