Death of Garcia Marquez: Yousfi offers Algeria\'s condolences

Interim Prime Minister, Youcef Yousfi, on Thursday in Algiers, offered on behalf of President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s condolences to Colombia following the death of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "With his demise at age of 87, Gabriel Garcia Marquez just turned the page of ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) after a rich life of creation," Yousfi wrote in the book of condolence signed by him behalf of President of the Republic at the Colombian Embassy in Algiers. "A mirror image of his time and environment, his life and works embodied singular ideas stemmed from rebellious imagination nourished by hope," President of the Republic wrote. "Gabo, as he was affectionately known in Latin America, managed to capture certainties and worries of his time in his ‘magical realism’," President Bouteflika added. Novelist, journalist and political activist Gabriel Garcia Marquez was "a proponent of change," for he created the Colombian weekly El Cambio (change) under this slogan, recalled President of the Republic. For President Bouteflika, "Garcia Marquez encouraged the break with facilities of routine and habit and enshrined his attachment to the idea of 'One minute of reconciliation is worth more than a whole life of friendship’." "Until his last breath, Gabriel Garcia Marquez remains close to the concerns of his people and their aspirations. He was the witness and acted as a catalyst on awareness-raising of generations on the need for Latin-American populations to mark history," affirmed President of the Republic. "The Nobel Literature Prize winner passed away, leaving a legacy of abundant work to perpetuate his memory forever," stated President Bouteflika. Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez died last Thursday at his home in Mexico at 87 following an illness. The author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", a masterpiece published in 1967 and sold 10 million copies worldwide, is one of the greatest writers of the Spanish language. "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "The General in his Labyrinth" are also among his major works. Garcia Marquez went also famous by his position in favor of the liberation movements. He was arrested by French authorities because of his support to the Algerian national cause in 1960 when he was a journalist in Paris.