Fish bone lands world's poorest president in hospital

The world's poorest president Jose Mujica, 85, will undergo surgery for a fishbone lodged in his throat, On Tuesday, according to PR.

Uruguay’s former president Mujica will go under the knife later Tuesday for what his personal physician said was a “minor” procedure."

The Uruguayan doctor, Raquel Pannone, told the Uruguayan newspapers: “Tomorrow the president will be back home.”

Attempts to remove the bone without pre-anesthesia were unsuccessful and failed, according to domestic media.

The maven politician became a humble person and cult figure during his 2010-15 rule, known for giving away most of his salary and driving an old and rusted Volkswagen Beetle car.

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

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

At the time the former president indicated: “Honestly, I’m going because the pandemic is tossing me out.”

It's worth mentioning that the people of Uruguay love Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world officials.

Indeed, the president has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.