Melitón Augusto Pihuave Cochea, the oldest living man in Ecuador, recently celebrated his 110th birthday. Today, 25 September, his age was officially validated by LongeviQuest.

Melitón Augusto Pihuave Cochea was born in the Libertador Bolívar commune, within the Manglaralto parish, Santa Elena province, Ecuador, on 16 September 1916. In his youth, he moved to the Palmar commune where he has resided ever since. Throughout his life, he has been a hardworking man of many trades and a pillar of his community. He dedicated many years of his life to agriculture, livestock farming, carpentry, and the trade of agricultural products such as bamboo, green plantains, mocoche, mamey, and oranges.

At the age 20. (Source: Courtesy of the family).

In May 1937, he married Juana Reyes Barzola, and together they had 15 children, ten of whom are still alive (as of September 2026): Edilberto, Ángel, Artidoro, Isauro, Lindorfa, Alicia, Víctor, Sara, Nery, and Griselda. He served in the Ecuadorian Army, attaining the rank of First Sergeant and participating in an armed conflict in the country. Later, he established a popular general shop (bazar) on the Palmar commune’s waterfront. After a period of closure, he celebrated the business’s reopening as a gift of life, remaining at the helm to personally serve his neighbors and customers.

He is the third documented male supercentenarian from Ecuador, following the validated case of Julio César Mora Tapia (1910–2020) and the case of Senovio Saavedra Muela(1912–2023), whose validation process has not yet been completed.

His age was verified by Fabrizio Villatoro and Gabriel Ainsworth, with assistance of his family. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the family of Melitón Augusto Pihuave Cochea for assisting with the validation process and providing us with his life story and photographs.