President Juan Manuel Santos decreed Thursday that flags across Colombia will be raised at half-mast and that the nation will recognize three days of mourning for famed author Gabriel Garcia Marquez who passed away earlier the same day.
“In honor of the memory of Gabriel Garcia Marquez I have decreed that the nation will mourn his loss for three days,” said President Santos just after 8 PM on Thursday through a live stream.
Nobel Prize winner for literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, passed away Thursday afternoon in Mexico City.
MORE: Colombia literary legend Gabriel Garcia Marquez dies at 87
Colombia’s head of state responded saying that as an homage to Colombia’s “most loved and admired compatriot of all time,” the nation’s flag will be raised at half-mast across the country. He added that he would afford the highest honors of the state to a writer who “changed the lives of his readers.”
Santos mentioned that he had the “privilege” of knowing Garcia Marquez, and that the Nobel Laureate “gave voice to our silenced, and to the legends of our grandparents.”
He also noted that while they disagreed a lot, they both had a strong commitment to peace.
President Santos noted that as “Colombians around the world enter Easter, we enter a space of reflection,” and he encouraged Garcia Marquez or “Gabo” to be in their thoughts.
Santos concluded by thanking the late author and his family, “for reminding us that Colombia and Latin America are not, nor will we be condemned to 100 years of solitude, and that we can win for ourselves– as we are doing– a second opportunity over the land.”
Sources
- President’s Live Stream (Office of the President)
- Gobierno decreta tres días de duelo en honor a García Márquez (El Tiempo)
- Duelo nacional de tres días por muerte de Gabo (El Espectador)