Carlos Fuentes: tributes to 'greatest Mexican novelist'

Carlos Fuentes, who has died aged 83, will be honoured at the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes in New York in 1983
Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes in New York in 1983 Credit: Photo: AP/Rick Maiman

Tributes have poured in to Carlos Fuentes, one of the Spanish-speaking world's best known writers.

The Mexican writer, who has had died at the age of 83 after suffering a massive hemorrhage in his digestive tract, will be honoured later today in a ceremony at the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, with his casket on display, the The National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature confirmed.

President Felipe Calderon earlier announced the writer's death in a message on his Twitter account.

Fuentes was a regular guest at Hay Festivals around the world and was a leading figure in the 1960s Latin American literature boom and achieved international renown at the age of 30 with The Most Transparent Region, a portrayal of Mexico City's explosive growth.

The author is survived by his second wife, journalist Silvia Lemus, and a daughter from his first marriage to the late actress Rita Macedo. Carlos Rafael and Natasha, his two children from his marriage with Lemus, died before him.

"RIP Carlos my friend," Booker prize-winning British author Salman Rushdie said on Twitter.

Mexican author Xavier Velasco, who said he had dinner with Fuentes just days ago, said: "I firmly believe that he is the greatest novelist Mexico has ever produced and also the one with the best sense of humour."