Rafael Cancel Miranda is one of five Puerto Rican Nationalists who spent more than a quarter-century in U.S. prisons following an armed protest they carried out in Washington against colonial rule. He was freed from prison in 1979 through an international defense campaign.

Cancel Miranda thanked the audiences for their efforts on behalf of himself and other freed political prisoners. "It wasn't the goodwill of [former U.S. president] Bill Clinton that won the freedom" of the most recently released Puerto Rican prisoners, he said. "It was the power of the movement."

In a meeting in Oakland, Cancel Miranda described his own experiences as a political prisoner, beginning with his incarceration in Florida for refusing to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. "Why should I go to kill Korean people I do not know? They are not the ones who invaded my country. They are not the ones who killed my people."

Later he spent time in many different U.S. prisons. "When they brought me to Alcatraz they had chains around my hands and legs. When they transferred me, they put twice as many chains on me. That made me feel good! They knew I was twice as dangerous than before! In Leavenworth they accused me of leading a strike and put me in solitary confinement for five years. At Marion I was subjected to behavior modification. They tried to modify the Puerto Rican out of me. They tried to destroy the symbol the people had made us to be. But you gave us strength. I came out standing and I'm going to die standing."

Luis Rosa, 38, was arrested in 1980 on charges of "seditious conspiracy" and was one of 11 Puerto Rican prisoners released in 1999. Rosa thanked activists for their support and pledged to continue to fight to free political prisoners still incarcerated.

"Our mission is not complete. We don't want to be treated as trophies, brought out at demonstrations. We need to be involved. We must constantly remind ourselves that we have achieved what many thought would never be accomplished," Rosa said.

"What happened in Puerto Rico because of the fight to free the political prisoners changed politics in Puerto Rico," he continued. "The unity forged in this fight moved the fight for national liberation forward. It broke the illusion we are helpless. It proved that this method of struggle can bear fruit. It broke the fear of being for revolution." Rosa pointed to people on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, who, have stood up and demanded the U.S. Navy stop using the territory as a training ground. "They won't allow themselves to be terrorized," Rosa said. "They are as strong as ever and still moving forward."

While in the Bay Area, Miranda and Rosa also attended a reception held in their honor by members of Comité '98 por un Puerto Rico Libré and a program organized by the San Francisco chapter of Irish Northern Aid, which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the H-Block hunger strike. There they met with Francie Molloy, a Sinn Fein member who along with Martin McGuiness represents Mid-Ulster in the new Assembly.  
 
 
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