Cuba: Emilio Duanes Duvarcer, dean of humanity, died at 120

milio Duanes Duvarcer, a Cuban aged 120 according to his identity papers, died Thursday in Minas, a town of 38,000 inhabitants in the province of Camagüey. On the island, he was considered the dean of humanity ahead of the Japanese Kane Tanaka. He died after contracting pneumonia. “The man maintained himself in good health during all these years thanks to the diet which he followed and the care of his family”, but “he died of sudden pneumonia, after being bedridden for a year later. a hip fracture, “says the blog Diario Mineño, maintained by journalists from the local radio station La Voz de Bayatabo.

Emilio Duanes Duvarcer had 13 children, 36 grandchildren and over 40 great-grandchildren. Born May 10, 1901 in Ocap, Haiti, he immigrated to Venezuela at age nine with an aunt before the two moved to Cuba three years later. He was already almost 60 years old during the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959.

He was not officially the dean of humanity

According to his identity papers, Emilio Duanes would have died at an older age than that of the current recognized dean of humanity, the Japanese Kane Tanaka (118 years), born January 2, 1903. Lack of documents attesting to the date of death. his birth, however, he himself is not recognized as a possible dean of humanity.

With a population of 11.2 million, Cuba is the second oldest country in Latin America, after Uruguay, and is expected to overtake it over the next decade according to experts.

More than 2,000 centenarians in Cuba

The island has 2,070 centenarians and a life expectancy of 79.5 years, numbers similar to that of a wealthy country, while the minimum wage is only $ 87 per month. In this communist country with a high density of doctors and a free health system, a “120-year-old club” also encourages residents to aim for this venerable age with good lifestyle habits.