World leaders, writers pay tribute to Garcia Marquez

Presidents, writers and celebrities paid tribute Friday to Nobel-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the late giant of Latin American literature whose work inspired generations of story-tellers. Garcia Marquez, who died Thursday at age 87, was mourned in the European cities where he once lived, the United States and his native Colombia that inspired his surreal stories of family, love and dictatorship. Cuban leader Fidel Castro Cuban President Raul Castro, whose brother Fidel was a close friend of Garcia Marquez, addressed a message of condolences to the writer’s wife, Mercedes Barcha.