A farmer who is believed to be the world’s oldest person has died aged 125 years and 300 days.
Marcelino Abad Tolentino, better known as Mashico, lived in a remote Peruvian village his whole life.
The government’s Pension 65 programme came across him during the Covid-19 pandemic and he received his first ID card and a state pension.
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He became a nationally recognised figure during this time.
Shortly after being enrolled in the programme, Mashico suffered an accident that resulted in a serious hip injury and he needed a wheelchair to help him get around.
The state pension he received went directly to a nursing home to cover his living expenses, medical care and food.
Mashico, who was raised as an orphan, passed away in his sleep at the care home on Monday, just five days shy of his 126th birthday.
He was considered the oldest man in Peru, possibly the world, but was never officially recognised by Guinness World Records due to a lack of documentation over the years.
He was born in a remote village in central Peru’s Huánuco Province in 1900.
He was orphaned at a young age and lived in extreme poverty for much of his life.
Mashico cultivated his own land by hand and traded his agricultural goods with other villagers, as reported by Need To Know.
He lived in isolation, without electricity or running water and used a small oil lamp for light.
He never had a family and lived outside of the system until he was identified by the authorities during the pandemic.
Since then, Mashico was included in state-assistance programmes and received food, medical support and a room in a nursing home.
Two years ago, the Peruvian government began the process of registering him as the world’s oldest man with Guinness World Records, but the process was not completed.
According to representatives of the Pension 65 programme, the application became complicated due to the need to show documentation from birth.
According to Guinness World Records, the oldest man who ever lived was Juan Vicente Pérez Mora who died in April 2024 at the age of 114 and 311 days.
The oldest man alive today is 113-year-old Brazilian João Marinho Neto.
The oldest living person is Ethel Caterham from the UK who is currently 116 years old.
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