The communicator said he was left to his fate in exile and cried out President Petro for support.
News Colombia.
Colombian journalism is mourning after the confirmation of the death of Freddy Calvache, recognized Payanés communicator, who died this Friday, August 29, 2025 in Zurich, Switzerland, at 55, victim of gastric cancer in an advanced phase.
Calvache had left the country after receiving threats for his journalistic work in Cauca, a region marked by violence and armed conflict.
In Switzerland, political asylum was granted in April of this year, although by then it was already under a delicate state of health.
“They canceled my contract and left me alone”
In life, Calvache denounced that Caracol newschannel for which he worked for years, pressed him to return to Colombia despite the risks he ran.
When refusing, his contract was canceled in 2022 or 2023 – according to his own statements -, leaving him without economic or institutional support.
“Noticias Caracol canceled my contract and since then I have practically not received support messages”, He said in one of his empty ones to Tubarco News. Since then, his subsistence depended solely on Swiss humanitarian assistance.
His departure from the country was not voluntary: He described it as a life or death decision after the constant threats he received in Cauca.
He traveled accompanied by one of his children and, although he could redo his life in Europe, in June 2024 he was diagnosed with him cancer stomach that changed its destiny.
The call to Petro and the impossible return
Upon knowing the seriousness of his illness, Calvache called President Gustavo Petro to manage a medicalized plane that would allow him to return to Popayán and say goodbye to his family.
A conventional flight was discarded by doctors, and the cost of an ambulance airplane – estimated between 500 and 600 million pesos – was unattainable. “My only desire is to return to Colombia to spend my last days with my family”, He said in a statement that moved colleagues and citizens.
The support never arrived and, finally, died in Europe, far from the land that so longed.
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