Lucía Topolansky

Lucía Topolansky Saavedra (born 25 September 1944) is a Uruguayan politician and former revolutionary who served as the 17th vice president of Uruguay from September 2017 to March 2020. A member of the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP) — Broad Front, she also served as Senator of the Republic from 2020 to 2022 and from 2005 to 2017, as National Representative from 2000 to 2005 and as First Lady of Uruguay as the wife of president José Mujica from 2010 to 2015.

Raised in an upper-class family, in 1969 Topolansky joined the far-left guerrilla group Tupamaros and went underground. In 1985, due to the amnesty law, she was released and participated in the founding of the MPP, starting her political career. In 1995 she was elected as a member of the Montevideo legislature, and in 2004 she was elected as a substitute National Representative, assuming the seat after the death of the incumbent Jorge Quartino. However, she took over as Senator of the Republic, as she was the first substitute for her husband José Mujica who left the seat to take office as Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries in 2005. She was a candidate for Intendant of Montevideo in the 2015 municipal elections, being defeated by Daniel Martínez Villamil.

In September 2017, she took office as Vice President of Uruguay after the resignation of Raúl Sendic Rodríguez, becoming the first woman to hold the position.