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Rafael Cancel Miranda, Puerto Rican Revolutionary, Dies at 89

HeadlineMar 10, 2020

A memorial tribute for Puerto Rican revolutionary Rafael Cancel Miranda is planned in New York City on Thursday following his death last week. Rafael Cancel Miranda was a hero in the Puerto Rican liberation movement and one-time member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, but was labeled a terrorist by the U.S. government after he and three others shot up the U.S. Capitol on March 1, 1954, to protest Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. colony. Miranda often referred to the attack as an “armed demonstration.” He was eventually released from prison by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. In the subsequent decades, Miranda continued to advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico. In 1990, he told The New York Times, “If this is still a colony, why should I change?” He died at his home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the age of 89.

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