Gabriel Garcia Marquez Death Rumor Circulates On Twitter

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Death Rumor Circulates On Twitter

According to many Twitter users, the famous Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez died on Monday, May 14th, 2012. But according to Colombian news sources and many of Garcia Marquez's close friends, the 85-year-old author is still very much alive.

Some might call it a Chronicle of a Death Foretold (which also happens to be the name of one of García Márquez's most famous works.) Others call it a Twitter hoax.

The series of tweets that set off the madness originated from what appears to be a fake account created under the name of Umberto Eco, an Italian writer.

Shortly thereafter, hundreds of tweets decrying the death of the Nobel Prize winning author circulated on Twitter. @ElGabo, which seems to be García Márquez's real Twitter handle, fired back in Spanish: "And what if we said that @UmbertoEcoOffic died? A false account." The @ElGabo handle has not been officially verified as García Márquez's real account by Twitter, however.

Jaime Abello Banfi, the director of the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Journalism also tweeted on Monday that the story was a hoax and asked that his Twitter followers not to believe the rumors.

Translation: Don't let yourselves be tricked by rumors, please.

Colombian news site, Noticias RCN, also confirmed that the rumors are untrue, though a culprit has yet to be identified.

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