Nicaraguan radio host drowns in the Rio Grande as he tries to swim to the US ~ WalkBrazil4K Travel Blog

Nicaraguan radio host drowns in the Rio Grande as he tries to swim across to the US near where Texas National Guardsman died last month: Presenter publicly detailed ill-fated journey to America

Calixto Rojas, of Nicaragua, drowned Sunday in the Rio Grande after he attempted to illegally migrate to Texas with his friend Elbe Castro, who survived
Rojas and Castro were among several individuals who each paid a woman $3,000 to be taken to Piedras Negras, Mexico, and then smuggled to Texas
Rojas was a radio host back home in Nicaragua but fled the country in December and left his family
He told Radio Dario that he was forced to abandon his loved ones after government supporters threatened to kill him and 'disappear' his family
He drowned in the same area of the river where Texas National Guardsman Bishop Evans died on April 22 after he attempted to rescue two migrants

A Nicaraguan man's tragic drowning was captured on camera Sunday - the result of a failed bid to illegally cross the Mexico-United States border.

Calixto Rojas, 53, and his friend Elbe Castro, 42, were seen struggling to stay afloat as the Rio Grande's current picked up strength between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Eagle Pass, Texas.

A Fox News camera crew spotted Castro hanging on to a concrete column in the middle of the river while Rojas battled the current and tried to keep his head above water. He later went under as Texas National Guard soldiers looked on.

Rojas was swept down the international waterway and his body was found near an islet further down the river.

Castro somehow continued on and made it to a second set of concrete pillars under a bridge, where he sat on top of a tree branch.

Rojas, a radio host back home, frequently penned letters to fill in Radio Dario with updates of what turned out to be an ill-fated journey to the U.S. border.

Rojas left his family behind in Nicaragua after he attended a demonstration denouncing the regime of President Daniel Ortega and immediately had his home attacked by supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

'They threatened me with death, that if I continued like this they would disappear me and my family,' he wrote.

'I had to make the hard decision to leave my family to save their lives, because when a Sandinista march was passing by made up of workers from the mayor's office, they pounced on my house throwing stones towards the roof, it was at that moment that in a consensus (decision) with my wife, I have to leave my house and therefore the country.'

Rojas traveled through Honduras before crossing into El Salvador and then Guatemala.

He settled for a while in Belize where he claimed he was 'totally disoriented and lost. And this is where my suffering began.'

Rojas shared that he struggled to eat a healthy meal, often settling for fruits, oatmeal, bread and just about anything that was cheap and affordable.

He made ends meets performing random cleaning jobs until he overheard a man speaking about the radio station he owned.

The impromptu job interview led to a $12-a-day radio gig, money which was used fund his journey to the Mexican Caribbean coastal state of Quintana Roo, where he faced additional struggles prior to finally reaching the northern state of Coahuila, where death awaited him.

'May God continue to illuminate the path of all of us who fight and leave everything to see a Nicaragua without a dictatorship and emigrate aimlessly just to save our lives for one day to see the dictators defeated,' Rojas wrote.