Hunger striker 'tortured' before dying
2010-08-31 22:44
Caracas - A Venezuelan farmer who died after a hunger strike to protest President Hugo Chavez's land takeovers was denied his own doctor and has become a symbol for the oppressed, his mourning family said.
In a politically sensitive case just weeks before a parliamentary election, Franklin Brito, 49, died on Monday at a Caracas military hospital where he had been taken against his will after demonstrating in a public square.
The government did not immediately comment on his death, but in the past had said Brito was mentally unstable and had rejected efforts to return his land. Authorities accuse opposition parties of exploiting Brito for political gain.
Brito's family said the government had not allowed him to see a doctor of his own choice.
"That's why, for now, Brito's family will not give opinions on the direct cause of his death, given the strange and inhuman circumstances surrounding him," relatives said in a statement.
The arrogance of power
"What we can say is that Franklin Brito's struggle continues... He has left his human form to become a symbol and flag for all those oppressed by the arrogance of power."
Brito's 24 hectares of yucca and watermelon plants in southern Bolivar state were seized in 2003 - part of the roughly 2.5 million hectares expropriated in recent years by Chavez's government.
Before being taken to the military hospital at the end of last year, Brito camped for months outside the Caracas office of the Organisation of American States, sewed his mouth shut and even chopped off a finger in front of television cameras.
His death came at a time of high political passions in the South American nation ahead of a September 26 vote for parliament where the opposition hopes to slash the majority of Chavez and his Socialist Party.
Cuban comparison
Some Chavez critics had compared Brito's case to that of Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata, who died in February after an 85-day hunger strike demanding better prison conditions. That drew international condemnation of Havana's rights record.
"It seems Hugo Chavez now has his own Orlando Zapata," Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said via Twitter.
Brito had been protesting since 2003, with off-and-on hunger strikes. Lately, he was taking some fluids in the hospital through injections to avoid dehydration.
His death was related to the hunger strike but the exact cause was unclear. Some media said he had a heart attack
"He wanted to be with his own trusted doctor," his daughter Angela Brito told reporters, saying his treatment in the hospital was tantamount to torture.
The opposition party First Justice said Brito's death was symptomatic of Venezuela's "sick" society.
"The absence of dialogue and understanding makes the most vulnerable people take drastic decisions like a father prepared to die in defence of a right consecrated in the National Constitution: private property."
Still largely popular among the poor, Chavez says he is reversing decades of injustice by redistributing wealth in the South American OPEC member along more equitable lines.
Opponents say Chavez, 56, is turning Venezuela into a Cuban-style regime and wrecking the economy.