The Venezuelan poet Rafael Cadenas is the winner of this year’s Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award in Spanish literature, which was announced this Thursday in Madrid by Spain’s Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta.

"Due to his vast and extensive literary work, the jury recognizes the importance of a creator who has made poetry a reason for his own existence and has taken it to heights of excellence in our language," said the minister at a press conference to read the decision.

"His work is one of the most important and demonstrates the transformative power of words when the language is elevated, when it is taken to the edge of its creative possibilities", continued Miquel Iceta.

Born in Barquisimeto (northwest) in 1930, the poet and essayist Cadenas, an essential author for Latin American poetry in recent decades, has received numerous awards for his works, including the National Prize for Literature in his country (1985), the Prize of Romance Languages in Mexico (2009) and the García Lorca Prize in Spain (2015).

The Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious for literature in Spanish, is endowed with 125,000 euros (almost 127,000 dollars).

Since it began to be awarded in 1976, the award has gone to authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Camilo José Cela, Álvaro Mutis, Eduardo Mendoza, Carlos Fuentes or Sergio Ramírez.

The delivery of the Cervantes takes place on April 23, the day of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, at the University of Alcalá de Henares, hometown of the author of Don Quixote de la Mancha.

In the solemn ceremony, the winner receives the award from the hands of the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia.