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Brazil & Southern Cone - May 2014 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Mujica holds little back during candid chat with Obama

Uruguay’s President José Mujica had the temerity to instruct his US peer Barack Obama in the art of diplomacy in Latin America during a visit to the US on 12 May for talks that also covered Mujica’s offer to take six ‘unlawful combatants’ held at the US naval base in Guantánamo. It is safe to assume there are not many heads of state that would enter the Oval Office and speak quite so frankly about several very sensitive issues – but Mujica is a law unto himself and his straight-talking tends to be appreciated rather than resented by fellow presidents. One of the few delicate issues that apparently did not get raised between the two heads of state was Uruguay’s marijuana law, which was officially enacted on 2 May with the approval of secondary legislation setting out rules and regulations for the State’s production, distribution and sale of the drug.

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