Additional documentation thanks to Freedom Archives
Rafael Cancel Miranda speaking in support of William Morales, a Puerto Rican patriot and member of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN) was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1979. He later escaped from Bellevue Hospital in New York and fled to Mexico. He was granted political asylum by Cuba in 1988. Rafael Cancel Miranda (July 18, 1930 – March 2, 2020) was one of the four Puerto Rico Nationalists who carried out an attack on the US congress in 1954. They did so to call attention to the colonial status of Puerto Rico. Rafael was sentenced to 75 years in federal prison. In 1979, his sentence was commuted by US President Jimmy Carter. A life long independentista and poet, Rafael Cancel Miranda is regarded as a national hero of Puerto Rico.
