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,

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.

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,