Uruguay’s eccentric president — a former urban guerrilla who, as head of state, still lives in a rustic farmhouse — is not your typical leftist Latin American firebrand. Still, he has an important message from his small country to deliver to the wider world: under Mujica’s watch, Uruguay is slated to become the world’s first country to make marijuana a government-regulated enterprise. As a number of leaders in the region warn about the failed policies of the U.S.-led drug war, Mujica’s move is by far the boldest.
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