World’s oldest man, 114, dies shortly before birthday
Global News
Juan Vicente Pérez started working in 1914 at the ripe old age of five years old on his family's coffee and sugar cane farm.
The world’s oldest man, according to Guinness World Records, has died at age 114.
Juan Vicente Pérez was born on May 27, 1909 in Venezuela. His death was announced Tuesday by the governor of Táchira state, where he lived. Pérez would have turned 115 next month.
Governor Freddy Bernal wrote that Pérez was the archetype of a Táchiran man — “humble, hard-working, peaceful, enthusiastic about family and tradition.”
“Our dear Juan Vicente Perez Mora, today with deep sadness and pain we say goodbye to you,” Bernal wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Pérez was officially announced as the world’s oldest living man on February 4, 2022 after the previous record holder, Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia of Spain, died at age 112.
The former town sheriff and farmer attributed his longevity to “working hard, resting on holidays, going to bed early, drinking a glass of aguardiente every day, loving God, and always carrying him in his heart,” he told Guinness at the time.
Aguardiente is a kind of distilled spirit that originates on the Iberian peninsula and is popular is South America.