Rafael Cancel Miranda

Liberation

1930–2020

Nationalist who attacked the U.S. Congress in 1954, spent 25 years as political prisoner

Rafael Cancel Miranda was a Puerto Rican poet, political activist, and Nationalist who participated in the 1954 armed attack on the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 1, 1954, alongside Lolita Lebrón and two others, he fired shots in the House chamber, wounding five congressmen. He was sentenced to 84 years in prison and served over 25 years before President Carter commuted his sentence in 1979.

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