The celebrated journalist, writer and diplomat Alberto Zalamea died at the age of 82 on Friday.
Zalamea began his career as a journalist with La Razon, eventually rising to the position of editor with La Semana in 1959. He also ran magazine La Nueva Prensa and was a columnist for Cromos and El Tiempo. In his time as a journalist he gained a reputation as a ferocious defender of the freedom of the press.
In 1970, Zalamea was elected to congress and he would go on to become Colombia’s ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Italy.
Zalamea’s health had been deteriorating over the last five months following a hip operation. His wife, Cecilia Fajardo, told La Semana, “He was getting worse bit by bit until he died. It wasn’t traumatic, it wasn’t an illness that caused him pain.”
