Chercos bids farewell to its mayor, José Antonio Torres, the oldest in Spain, who has died aged 100
José Antonio Torres Sáez, mayor of Chercos since 1995 and the oldest serving mayor in the whole of Spain, died this Monday at the age of 100.
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Chercos says goodbye to its mayor. José Antonio Torres Sáez, who had headed the town council since 1995, died this Monday, 29 June, aged 100, as announced by Almería Provincial Council. Born on 23 July 1925, he was the oldest serving mayor in Spain and the doyen of the province’s mayors.
Before devoting himself to local politics, Torres had a long career in the Guardia Civil (Spain’s Civil Guard), which he joined in 1949 and in which he rose to the rank of warrant officer (subteniente), with postings in Lérida, Seville, Gerona, Albacete and Vizcaya. During his time in the Basque Country he escaped unharmed from an ETA attack in Amorebieta, as the EFE news agency has recalled.
More than three decades serving his village
Back home, he was elected mayor in 1995 and led the town council for more than three decades, with a single break of a few months in 2023: he regained the mayor’s staff of office in November that year. According to EFE, he never drew a salary from the town council.
They were years of many changes for the village. Among the improvements of that period, the Provincial Council highlights the library, a children’s scholarship programme, the swimming pool, the sports courts, the theatre and the funeral home, as well as the arrival of the first cash machine in the municipality. In 2025, to mark his centenary, the provincial institution awarded him the Escudo de Oro de la Provincia (Gold Shield of the Province), its highest honour, in recognition of his dedication to public service.
Condolences from the Provincial Council
The president of the Provincial Council, José Antonio García Alcaina, expressed his “dismay and sadness” at the loss and described him as “a person who will always be remembered for his energy, commitment and dedication to his fellow residents”. He also referred to him as “the doyen of the mayors of the province of Almería, of Spain and, in a way, of the world”.
With his death, Chercos, a small municipality in the Sierra de los Filabres with barely three hundred inhabitants, closes a chapter of more than thirty years with the same person at the head of its town council, and the province loses its most senior mayor.
From elValle Actualidad, we extend our deepest condolences to his family and to all the residents of Chercos.
