A death four days before his 119th birthday
Manuel Moisés Álvez, regarded as one of the longest-lived men in Argentina, died on Thursday at the age of 118 in San Vicente, in the province of Misiones. He lived with relatives in the rural settlement of Las Tunas and was known locally as one of the area's oldest residents. His death came just four days before he would have turned 119, according to the birth date recorded on his national identity document.[S1][S2]
The Misiones police were alerted shortly before 12.40 and officers from the Second Precinct went to the house on kilometre 34 of provincial route 13. A police doctor examined the body and concluded that death had resulted from a non-traumatic cardiorespiratory arrest. The physician placed the time of death between three and six hours before the officers arrived and saw no need for an autopsy, according to information reported by the local outlet El Territorio.[S1][S2]
More than a century without papers
Álvez's identity document listed his birth date as 26 October 1907. Although no independent certification ever confirmed him as the country's oldest man, his case became tied to the memory of San Vicente and of those who cared for him in his final years. Relatives recalled that some of his papers had been lost years earlier, when the small dwelling where he lived burned down.[S1][S2]
He obtained his first national ID at 114 through a late registration, a procedure intended for people whose births were never recorded during their first year of life. The Registro Provincial de las Personas de Misiones supported the process under the Indocumentado Cero program. Holding the document then allowed him to begin applying for pension benefits and social coverage, access that the absence of papers had long made difficult.[S1][S2]
Rural life, a harmonica and a police birthday visit
Álvez spent his final years in Las Tunas with family members who looked after him. In San Vicente he was considered one of the oldest neighbours, and his life was bound up with the rural history of the area: he worked on the land and took part in opening roads in the region. His great-niece Liliana Rodríguez said in 2022 that he was a calm man in good health for his age, with a simple routine, a liking for meat and a habit of drinking plenty of water.[S1][S2]
Rodríguez also said that he had learned to play the harmonica more than a decade earlier, and the instrument became one of his pastimes in Las Tunas. In 2022, when he turned 115, officers from the Second Precinct of San Vicente came to his home with a cake and a gift to surprise him, and the celebration with his family was captured in photographs. That gathering carried an extra meaning: it was there, after decades without documentation, that he received his ID.[S1][S2]
