Nobel Literature Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa dies in Peru

Peru, Apr 14 (V7N) — Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa died Sunday at the age of 89 in the Peruvian capital, his family announced on the social network X.

Vargas Llosa's passing marks the close of the era of Latin America's literary golden generation, of which he was the last living member.

"It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family," wrote his eldest son Alvaro in a message also signed by his siblings Gonzalo and Morgana Vargas Llosa.

Rumors of the writer's deteriorating health had spread in recent months, during which he had been living out of the public eye.

In October, his son Alvaro said he was "on the verge of turning 90, an age when you have to reduce the intensity of your activities a little."

Born into a middle-class Peruvian family, Vargas Llosa was one of the greats of the Latin American literary "boom" of the 1960s and 1970s, along with Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Argentina's Julio Cortazar.

The writer's "passing will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world," the family statement read.