Roberto de Miranda (born 1947 in

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 333,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by Sp ...

, Cuba) is a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n professor and head of the ''College of Independent Teachers of Cuba'', a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

that he founded in July 1992. The organization seeks "the de-ideologization of education in Cuba and denounces violations against students and professors that do not share the political ideals of the system." Roberto de Miranda also founded the Félix Varela Independent Library in 2000. He was imprisoned during the Black Spring crackdown on dissidents in 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

declared him as a

prisoner of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

. He received the 2003 '' Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award''. He was released after 14 months of jail, possibly because the Cuban government feared the international backlash if he had died in jail.

References

External links

Roberto de Miranda
''

Freedom Collection Freedom Collection is a digital repository sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Southern Methodist University's campus in Dallas, Texas. The collection documents major players in human rights and ...

'' interview {{DEFAULTSORT:Miranda, Roberto de 1947 births Living people Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Cuba Cuban dissidents Cuban human rights activists Cuban librarians 20th-century Cuban mathematicians Nonviolence advocates Cuban prisoners and detainees