Roberto López, Former Cuban Political Prisoner, Dies After Years Living on the Streets of Cádiz

López was many things: son of a bodyguard of Ernesto Guevara, musician with Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez, combatant in Angola, political prisoner in Cuba and exiled in Spain

14ymedio, Madrid, 9 May 2024 — Rarely does the Spanish press report on the death of a homeless person, but this week it happened. It started in Cádiz and has reached television stations based in Madrid. The deceased was the Cuban Roberto López and before living on the street he was many things: son of a bodyguard of Ernesto Che Guevara, musician with Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez, combatant in Angola, political prisoner in Cuba and exiled in Spain.

He arrived there in 2011, as a result of the release agreement between the Church and the Cuban regime mediated by the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. López did not belong to the well-known Group of 75, detained in the Black Spring, but he joined a last group of 11 prisoners led by Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, president and co-founder of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and he was on a hunger strike at that time.

Since then he lived in Cádiz. “I came to Spain because I was given subsidiary protection and international protection. We were guaranteed housing and money for four years. But I never received anything,” López had told the press.

“I came to Spain because I was given subsidiary protection and international protection. We were guaranteed housing and money for four years. But I never received anything”

According to the media La Voz Digital , Roberto had reached out to different organizations, but never received a response. Health problems came: pneumonia, pneumonia, a broken hip, pain in one leg… He went to Santiago de Compostela and Huelva, but ended up returning to Cádiz, where he earned a living teaching music, until alcoholism was slowly destroying him.

“A professio