Interviews with Roberto de Miranda

All their propaganda is false. They are going to take you where they want to take you, but why don’t they let the reporters inside Cuban jails? Why don’t they take people who visit Cuba to the slums? This has been really hard on us, and the Cuban people feel the same way. Sometimes we meet people on the streets who ask us why a French minister didn’t meet with us but did meet with the government and also with the “five prisoners of the Empire,” as they’re known in Cuba.

A lot of the times it’s hard for us to give a convincing answer. And because of an ethical issue, we just say because they’re trying to reach out to the Cuban government in order to achieve democracy in our country. Providing an answer to the Cuban people on this situation is very difficult, because in our country a lot of people know who “the five” are, due to the nationwide distribution of literature explaining what they really were: Cuban security agents. I don’t think I’m mistaken in saying that around 30 percent of Cubans believe in the facts, despite the censorship and propaganda coming from the Cuban government, which, I must stress, spends millions and millions of Cuba’s resources on false media campaigns regarding these five people.

Roberto de Miranda is a former teacher, educational freedom advocate, and prisoner of conscience in Cuba.

Born in the province of Camaguey in 1946, Miranda worked as a mathematics teacher in the 1980s. He was fired from his teaching position by school administrators for his refusal to participate in public political acts and for refusing to pass students who did not earn passing grades. He then co-founded and became the first president of the College of Teachers of Cuba (Colegio de Pedagogos de Cuba), a non-governmental organization that seeks “the de-ideologization of education in Cuba and denounces violations against students and professors who do not share the political ideals of the system.”

Miranda also founded the Félix Varela Independent Library in July 2000 and supported the Varela Project, a nonviolent citizens’ legislative initiative for democratic reforms in Cuba.

In 2003, Miranda was arrested, tried and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment under Article 91 of the Cuban Penal Code, which penalizes “an act with the objective of causing detrimental suffering to the independence of the Cuban state or to the integrity of its territory, in the interest of a foreign state.”

While in prison, Miranda was given the 2003 Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award, which is given annually to a Cuban who has displayed courage in nonviolent resistence to the Cuban government. Bulgarian Prime Minister Philip Dimitrov said during the ceremony, “Roberto de Miranda has been dedicated for many years to the promotion of free thought and has made important progress. The Castro regime abhors these types of people because they represent an independent civil society, which is one of the largest threats facing the government.”

Miranda was released from prison in 2010 and immigrated to the United States where he lives in Miami. He continues his work on behalf of freedom and democracy in Cuba.