MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Crowds poured into the streets of Uruguay's capital on Wednesday 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,

José Mujica was often bemused by the label of “world’s poorest president”. The Uruguayan former guerrilla fighter drew global camera crews to the tiny nation throughout his 2010-15 term by forgoing the presidential palace for his small farmhouse and government cars for his ageing Volkswagen Beetle.