Lucio Chiquito Caicedo died at the age of 110 — the engineer who helped found EPM and shaped the development of Antioquia

News He defended his doctoral thesis in Manchester at over 100 years old. The National University, Aníbal Gaviria, and Mauricio Restrepo bid him farewell with tributes. Lucio Chiquito, one of the founders of EPM, has died. Photo: Archive/Instagram @luciochiquito105 BREAKING NEWS REPORTER 13.11.2026 09:43 Updated: 13.11.2026 09:53 Civil engineer Lucio Chiquito Caicedo, one of the founders of Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), died this Friday, November 13, 2026, at the age of 110. His death was confirmed in the morning by several regional media outlets and by institutions that recognized him as a key figure in Colombian engineering. So far, neither the cause of his death nor the details of his funeral arrangements have been released. Chiquito Caicedo was born in Cali on May 22, 1916, and graduated as a civil engineer from the Faculty of Mines of the National University of Colombia, Medellín campus. He took part in the creation of EPM in 1955 and in the founding of companies and institutions such as Integral, Sedic, Camacol, and the Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia. His death prompted farewell messages from the Faculty of Mines of the National University, former governor of Antioquia Aníbal Gaviria Correa, and former EPM general manager Mauricio Restrepo Gutiérrez. In May of this year he had turned 110 and was considered the oldest man in Colombia, according to LongeviQuest. A life dedicated to engineering The son of an Antioquian father and a mother from Valle del Cauca, Chiquito studied at the Faculty of Mines thanks to a scholarship from the Governorate of Valle and graduated in 1941. According to El Colombiano, he saw an ad in that newspaper about a British Council scholarship and was selected among 28 applicants to study at the University of Manchester in England, where he arrived in 1943, in the middle of World War II. There he obtained a master's degree in Science and Technology in 1947, with studies related to hydraulics. He later furthered his education at the universities of Colorado and Texas and completed an internship at the United States Bureau of Reclamation in Denver. DEVELOPING STORY... Follow all the news from Colombia on Facebook and Twitter, or in our weekly newsletter. EL TIEMPO NEWSLETTERS Sign up for our newsletters and receive news in your email according to your interests. Stay informed about what really matters to you. EL TIEMPO GOOGLE NEWS Follow us on GOOGLE NEWS. Always stay up to date with the latest news, coverage, stories, and analysis directly on Google News. EL TIEMPO WHATSAPP Join the El Tiempo channel on WhatsApp to stay up to date with the most relevant news as it happens. EL TIEMPO APP Stay informed with the EL TIEMPO app. Get the latest news, coverage, stories, and analysis directly on your device. SUBSCRIBE TO THE DIGITAL EDITION Reliable information for you. Subscribe to EL TIEMPO and access our journalistic content without limits.