Marquez foundation refutes dementia claim

The head of a foundation created by Colombian Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez refuted claims from the author's brother that he is suffering from dementia. "I will not argue or comment on interpretations of Gabo's private affairs and health, but I assert there is no medical diagnosis of senile dementia," the director of the New Journalism Foundation, Jaime Abello, wrote on Twitter. "Please, enough messages of solidarity: Gabo is not insane. He's just an elderly person who has lost a bit of memory. I still have the pleasure of being his friend," he added. The New Journalism Foundation was founded in 1994 in the Colombian resort city of Cartagena. The 85-year-old author's brother Jaime Garcia Marquez told Mexican newspaper El Universal in an interview published online last week that the 1982 Nobel winner is suffering from "senile dementia". "What he has are some memory issues; in our family, we all end up with senile dementia. I am starting to get some of the onset complications and he already is in the throes of it," said Jaime Garcia Marquez. Weakened by cancer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez did not resume writing after his latest novel, "Memories of My Melancholy Whores", in 2004. This year marks the 30th anniversary since Garcia Marquez received the Nobel Prize for Literature. "One Hundred Years of Solitude", his tale of a troubled family living in the imaginary village of Macondo in the 19th and 20th centuries, has been translated into 35 languages. The book has sold 30 million copies worldwide.