Julio César Gálvez

Julio Gálvez Rodríguez worked for Cuban government media for 24 years. In March 2003, as he was working as a freelance reporter in Havana, state security agents arrested him as part of the massive crackdown. He was given a 14-year prison sentence.

Blog | Cuba

A Cuban journalist in exile: Unkept promises

By Julio César Gálvez/CPJ Guest Blogger

Gálvez Rodríguez shows his passport to the media after his arrival in Spain. (Reuters)

The clouds of exile are twice as bitter. Being forced from your birthplace and into legal limbo in the land of your grandparents where you're met by complete official abandonment only deepens the wounds. My gloominess has nothing to do with the affection and solidarity shown by the Spanish people, especially the citizens of Madrid. Thanks to many of them my family--my wife and my little 5-year-old Emmanuel--have clothes and shoes. We arrived with nothing. Or worse yet: We arrived loaded down with the heavy baggage of my long imprisonment.

Continue reading »