Gabriel García Márquez
Colombian Nobel laureate in literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez gestures on his arrival at Diagonal Palace in Barcelona, Spain April 28, 2005. Garcia Marquez participated in a Ibero-American meeting. Reuters

Gabriel García Márquez' body has been moved to the García López funeral home on San Jerónimo avenue in Mexico City. The 87-year-old author passed away today after a lengthy battle with cancer. Not long after 5pm a vehicle from the funeral home arrived at the house of the 1982 Nobel Literature Prize winner, located in the Jardines del Pedregal neighborhood, where dozens of people and members of the press had gathered to learn news about the author's death.

At least a dozen police prevented the access to cars to the area and asked the press to not get in the way of the funeral vehicle which arrived at the house of 'El Gabo' as he was popularly known. According to various sources, there are numerous police, reporters and admirers of García Márquez outside the funeral home, who stood holding yellow roses to farewell the Colombian author. His widow, Mercedes Barcha, revealed that there will be a service for Márquez, however, a date has not been set.

Meanwhile, the President of the National Council of Arts and Culture, Rafael Trovar, said that he offered the García Márquez' family every cooperation with Mexican authorities to hold a service for the deceased author. The Colombian Nobel laureate was placed in hospital on the 31st of March this year due to a lung and urinary tract infection. Nine days later, he was released, but doctors emphasized that due to his age, the author's health would be fragile at best.

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