Mourners wept, raised their arms and marched behind the flag-draped casket of former President José Mujica on Wednesday as thousands bid a poignant farewell to the iconic leader in the Uruguayan capital.

José Mujica, who has died aged 89, was a Marxist terrorist who reinvented himself to become a popular liberalising president of Uruguay in his 70s; ostentatiously rejecting the rewards of office, he earned the soubriquet “the world’s poorest president”.

The Uruguayan government has declared three days of national mourning in honor of the late former President Jose "Pepe" Mujica.