HAVANA ? The widow of a Cuban prisoner who reportedly died after a 50-day hunger strike acknowledged Monday that his legal troubles stemmed from a domestic violence incident and that he aligned himself with the opposition only after he was detained for that, but accused the government of negligence leading to his death.
Maritza Pelegrino said her late husband, Wilman Villar, was first arrested after her mother alerted neighbors and police in July 2011 about a marital dispute. Authorities say Villar beat Pelegrino, but she downplayed the seriousness of the incident.
"There was an argument between us like in any marriage," said the 28-year-old Pelegrino, whose husband died Jan. 19, a week after he was hospitalized in the far-eastern city of Santiago.
Pelegrino, who now herself has joined a dissident group, spoke at a news conference in the Havana home of a prominent rights activist and appeared with former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer, head of the Patriotic Union of Cuba opposition group in the island's east.
Dissidents say Villar's death was provoked by complications from pneumonia related to his refusal to eat in protest of his incarceration, while the government maintains that he was not on hunger strike and says authorities gave him all necessary medical attention.
Pelegrino told journalists that during the July arrest, Villar, who apparently had been drinking, was treated roughly by authorities.
"We had our argument and afterward my mother went (to seek help). That's when the police arrived and took him away by force, mistreating him. They put him in the car and took him away," Pelegrino said.
Villar was released while a court considered his case. He first joined up with anti-government activists in August or September, according to Pelegrino and Ferrer.
Villar was taken into custody again in November when a court sentenced him to four years for disrespecting authority, assault and resisting arrest arising from the domestic violence case. Authorities call him a "common criminal."
"After committing his crime, while remaining free during the prosecution, Villar began to link himself to counterrevolutionary elements in Santiago de Cuba who led him to believe that his supposed membership in mercenary groups would help him evade justice," the government said in an official declaration published Jan. 20.
Pelegrino attributed her husband's political activism to anger over his father's death in custody five years earlier, though she could not explain why he joined the movement only last year.
Ferrer said Villar protested his sentence by refusing to eat but intended to continue drinking liquids.
The two said family members visited Villar on Dec. 23 and he lifted his hunger strike, only to stop eating again six days later when he realized his sentence would not be reconsidered. He was hospitalized in mid-January, and his health continued to decline.
The government has said "there is abundant proof and testimony demonstrating that he was not a 'dissident' nor was he on hunger strike," though authorities have not made such evidence public.
Cuba accused the opposition and the U.S. government of using Villar's death to demonize the revolution. It considers dissidents to be mercenaries trying to topple the communist-run government at the bidding of Washington.
Villar, 31, was little-known before his death even among island dissidents.
Human rights watcher Amnesty International determined Villar met its criteria for recognition as a "prisoner of conscience" and had planned to launch a campaign Jan. 20 calling for his release, but he died the previous evening.
Pelegrino was clad in white at the news conference and said she had joined the dissident group known as the Ladies in White while her husband was in jail.
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