On March 1, 1954, with fellow Nationalists Lolita Lebrón, Irvin Flores, and Rafael Cancel Miranda, he entered the United States Capitol building armed with automatic pistols; thirty shots were fired.

Figueroa Cordero was born into a poor family in the Barrio Lagunas in the town of Aguada in Puerto Rico.

[1] The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded by José Coll y Cuchí as a direct response to the American colonial government in 1919.

In New York, he became a member of the Nationalist Party branch of that city and befriended Lolita Lebrón and Rafael Cancel Miranda.

[1] In 1954, Lebrón received a letter from Albizu Campos, in which he declared his intention to order attacks on "three locations, the most strategic to the enemy".

Lebrón presented the plan to the Nationalist Party in New York and choose Cancel Miranda, Flores and Figueroa Cordero for the task.

[3] Lebrón had intended to call attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause, particularly among the Latin American countries participating in the conference.

The representatives of the House were discussing Mexico's economy when suddenly Lebrón gave the order to the group to quickly recite the Lord's Prayer.

The trial began on June 4, 1954, with judge Alexander Holtzoff presiding over the case, under strict security measures.

[10] Ruth Mary Reynolds, the "American/Puerto Rican Nationalist", with the aid of the American League for Puerto Rico's Independence, helped to defend the four shooters.

[11] On October 26, 1954, judge Lawrence E. Walsh found all of the accused guilty of conspiracy, sentencing them to six additional years in prison.

He was also an active participant in the struggle for the prison release of his group Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Irvin Flores.

During his stay in the hospital he was awarded the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Medal by the Cuban Communist Youth[17] and was visited by Fidel Castro.

The local municipal government honored his memory with the unveiling of a bust in his likeness located in the carretera PR 416.