In the soaring palace of Uruguay’s parliament, left-wing presidents from the region have come to remember former President Jose Mujica as a generous and charismatic leader whose legacy of humility remained an example for the world’s politicians.

Crowds have poured into the streets of Uruguay’s capital to bid a poignant farewell to former President José Mujica, a guerrilla fighter-turned-pioneering leader who became an icon of the Latin American left, remembered most for his humility, simple lifestyle and ideological earnestness.

Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died.