Mujica, a member of Uruguay's leftist Broad Front coalition elected in 2009, and Lula, the standard-bearer of Brazil's Workers’ Party who started his second term in 2007, belonged to a generation of leftist leaders elected to office across Latin America in the early years of this century.

Thousands of Uruguayans lined the streets of Montevideo Wednesday to bid farewell to deceased former leader Jose "Pepe" Mujica, famed for his humility and once known as the "world's poorest president.

Jose Mujica, a one-time guerrilla and later president of Uruguay who drove a beat-up VW Beetle and enacted progressive reforms that carried his reputation well beyond South America, has died aged 89.