Wilman Villar Mendoza

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Wilman Villar Mendoza (born May 30, 1980 in Palma Soriano , † January 19, 2012 in Santiago de Cuba ) was a Cuban dissident and political prisoner who died in custody as a result of a hunger strike lasting more than 50 days .

He had refused to eat in protest of his conviction for assault, resistance to state power and lack of respect for the authorities (Spanish: desacato). According to the Cuban government, he was neither an opposition nor was he on a hunger strike. She described corresponding representations as part of an international defamation campaign directed against Cuba.

The death also owed its attention to the context of a chain of controversial deaths within the previous 23 months and tougher treatment by the government of the opposition, which was not noticeably declining despite simultaneous emigration: In February 2010, the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after a hunger strike, whereby there had been indications of gross deficiencies in the conditions of detention and medical care. Although the last political prisoners affected by the wave of arrests in spring 2003 were released on parole in March 2011, after numerous political prisoners and their families had been forced to leave the country since the summer, the number of temporary arrests, violent obstruction and intimidation measures increased (see Acto de Repudio ) against members of the opposition in 2011 increased dramatically. In May 2011, the dissident and former political prisoner Juan Wilfredo Soto García died in unexplained circumstances shortly after declaring he had been critically injured by police beatings. At the beginning of 2012, a prisoner on hunger strike died in Santiago de Cuba, but he was not a political prisoner.

Life and political engagement

Wilman Villar lived in the eastern Cuban town of Contramaestre and graduated as a textile mechanic, but, like many Cubans, lived from various freelance and casual jobs - for example as a craftsman, carpenter and street vendor of tuberous fruits and plantains. According to his wife, he made several trips to Havana, where his mother lives, to look for work. From there, however, he was regularly deported to his hometown. He said he never agreed with the injustices that were taking place in Cuba and, due to his anti-government attitude, he was never able to get a regular job. He was a baptized member of the Contramaestre Baptist Church . According to Villar's wife, his father died in custody about three years ago, and the deceased had been released by the authorities three months after his death.

In 2010, according to his wife, Villar joined the political resistance movement in Contramaestre. Since he made this public statement, he has been followed, threatened and harassed by the political police. Shortly after the prominent opposition activist and former political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer founded the opposition group "Unión Patriótica de Cuba" (UNPACU, German: Patriotic Union of Cuba), which he led in August 2011, Villar joined her in September. Ferrer, who lives in the nearby town of Palma Soriano, was released prematurely on parole in March 2011 after eight years of his 25-year prison sentence as one of the last of more than 75 political prisoners convicted in the " Black Spring " of 2003 through the mediation of the Catholic Church in Cuba . Since all opposition activity is prohibited in Cuba, the UNPACU is also an illegal group that is not recognized by the authorities. Maritza Pelegrino, who had been married to Villar for eight years, was also involved in the opposition movement by joining the women's group “ Damas de Blanco ” (German: Ladies in White), which, despite sometimes violent obstruction by the authorities, regularly held demonstrations for the Observance of universal human rights by the Cuban government. Pelegrino's parents, on the other hand, are active supporters of the Cuban government; Villar also came from a “revolutionary” family: his mother's partner works for the Ministry of the Interior and his sister's partner is an official of the State Security Service.

On November 14, 2011, Villar took part in a UNPACU protest demonstration in the streets of Contramaestre for more respect for human rights and against the violent repression of the Damas de Blanco. In the course of this protest he was arrested and, according to other demonstrators, also beaten by the police. According to his wife, he was temporarily detained for three or four days, after which the State Security Service warned him that if he did not give up his opposition activities, he would be removed. However, he did not allow himself to be intimidated and told her that if he were arrested he would fight for his freedom to the death.

Trial and conviction

A few days after his release, on November 25th, a fast-paced trial was held against Villar in which he was found guilty of assault, opposition to state violence and disrespect for the authorities and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Defense witnesses were not admitted during the hearing. After the trial, the convict described the process as a farce.

Mayhem

It is unclear exactly which bodily harm the judgment refers to. The statements of the Cuban government and the Cuban media directly dependent on it mention an alleged attack by Villar on his wife, in which the facial injuries were sustained. After Villar's death, bloggers who were initially anonymous or published under a pseudonym and who were assigned to the Cuban State Security Service, published a photograph of a medical finding from July 12, 2011, which was intended to support the thesis of Villars' assault on his wife. However, the finding only mentions a “slight injury on the inside of the upper lip”, which cannot be used in any judicial system in the world to justify a prison sentence of several years. The findings also do not show that Villar was in any way responsible for the injury found. According to official information, his mother-in-law asked the police to intervene after Villar's assault on Pelegrino, after which he resisted the arrest and assaulted the police. As the alleged main victim of the assault, Wilman Villar's wife was not admitted as a witness or spectator of the trial. According to her information, the trial lasted less than an hour.

Imprisonment and hunger strike

After his conviction on November 25, 2011, Villar was transferred to the Aguadores prison in the immediate vicinity of the international airport on the southern outskirts of Santiago de Cuba. A hunger strike started there to protest his detention. As a condition for ending the hunger strike, he requested that his sentence be lifted. According to his wife, who was last allowed to visit him in prison on December 29, he was already looking very thin and dehydrated by then. Nevertheless, he resumed his hunger strike on the same day, which he interrupted on December 23, after representatives of the prison authorities had truthfully assured him that he would be released as part of the amnesty announced by President Raúl Castro of 2,900 prisoners if he went on hunger strike . As a second form of protest against his detention, Villar refused to put on inmate clothing. His civilian clothes were then stripped off by prison staff and he was locked in a punishment cell without clothes, where he contracted pneumonia and was left without medical attention while in prison. Since December 22nd, at the latest, Villar's wife and several members of the opposition had asked the authorities to admit the prisoner to a hospital to accompany the hunger striker, which they confirmed by demonstrations in front of the prison. However, there was no response to these requests.

Hospital admission and death

Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital, Santiago de Cuba

On the morning of January 12, Villar was admitted from Aguadores Prison in Santiago de Cuba in a life-threatening condition to the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital in the same city. According to official information, he showed symptoms of severe inflammation of the left lung and was artificially ventilated and fed, as well as medication, including antibiotics. A day later he was transferred to the emergency department of the Dr. Juan Zayas Alfonso Clinic for Surgery, which was better equipped for intensive care. The pneumonia could not be stopped, but spread to the liver and kidneys, and Villar died on January 19, 2012 of multiple organ failure as a result of general blood poisoning ( sepsis ).

At the hospital, Villar's wife was prevented from seeing her husband's body. He was transferred to the Contramaestre public funeral home by the authorities. Of the opposition mourners, only eight members of the Damas de Blanco and six members of opposition groups were allowed to pay homage to the deceased laid out in the funeral home, others were prevented from entering by the police, according to information from opposition circles. Numerous opposition activists had previously been temporarily arrested to prevent them from attending the funeral, funeral or demonstrations. The head of UNPACU, José Daniel Ferrer, was prevented from leaving his home by security forces. Only family members were allowed to accompany the coffin on the way to the cemetery. Villar was finally buried on the afternoon of January 20th under a large number of security forces.

In addition to his wife, Wilman Villar left two chronically ill daughters aged seven and five.

Reactions to Villar's death

Cuban government

On January 21, 2012, the Cuban government published a formal declaration on Villar's death, which was printed on page 2 of the party's official daily Granma and distributed nationally and internationally via news agencies and websites. It emphasizes that the deceased was an "ordinary prisoner" who had been cared for according to the best medical standard since he was admitted to the hospital on January 13, about which his family members had also been kept informed. The fact that Villar died as a dissident on a hunger strike were false claims made in an international campaign of defamation by the foreign press in conjunction with “counter-revolutionary elements” within Cuba. There is "innumerable evidence and testimony" which show that Villar was neither a dissident nor was on a hunger strike. The deeds for which Wilman Villar was convicted of assault, resistance and disobedience occurred in the context of an incident when Villar attacked his wife and injured her face. His mother-in-law then called the police for help and he resisted the police officers and assaulted them. While he was at large and investigations were underway, he began to contact "counterrevolutionary elements" who had led him to believe that his alleged membership of the "small mercenary groups" would allow him to settle to evade justice.

No information about the Villar case appeared in the state-controlled Cuban mass media beyond the government's official statement. Instead, extensive reference was made to alleged human rights violations in other countries, particularly hunger strikes and detainees. On Monday, January 23, 2012, the daily Granma devoted its entire front page in an unusually prominent way to the defense against the alleged defamation campaign that Cuba was exposed to on the occasion of the death of Wilman Villar, which was already mentioned in the previous edition on Saturday. The leading article did not address the specific allegations about the Villar case, nor did it provide any reference to the "countless evidence and testimony" mentioned in the previously published statement, which the Cuban authorities have not yet published. The furious rejection of any criticism by the Cuban leadership was further intensified with a detailed comment by Fidel Castro published in the Cuban media on January 25, 2012 : he repeated the central points of the official declaration on Villar's death and did not provide any additional information on the open ones Questions of the case, but instead spanned a wide arc from the Cuban wars of independence of the 19th century to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 to the current criticism of foreign governments (in the case of Spain, insulted by him as "fascist" ) of the human rights situation in Cuba and their own, worldwide problem areas. At the same time he lamented the “shameless lies of the mass media of the empire” (ie the capitalist states under the leadership of the USA) and claimed that a journalist serving the revolution (government) might be wrong, but would “never falsify a message or a lie to invent".

Villar's wife Maritza Pelegrino

Maritza Pelegrino strongly contradicted the representations of the Cuban government. The official version is a story made up by the political police (the department of the State Security Service responsible for controlling the internal opposition) to degrade the victim. Her husband never hit her. According to Pelegrino, the investigation mentioned in the official statement relates to an earlier incident when Villar was arrested while drunk and beaten by the police. She called on the Cuban government to give her the opportunity to make her version of what happened to the Cuban people public. If the government is so sure that the official account is correct, then it shouldn't be afraid if Pelegrino presents its view of things on Cuban television, she told exiled Cuban journalists over the phone .

Cuban opposition

The news of Villar's death sparked expressions of outrage, sadness and solidarity from across the Cuban opposition movement inside and outside the country, from both the right and the Marxist end of the political spectrum. The civil society activist Yoani Sánchez , who has become internationally prominent as a blogger and who is probably the best-known critic of the government abroad, spoke in an article about the fact that the government explicitly referred to Villar as an "ordinary criminal": she pointed out, that it is a pattern regularly followed by the Cuban authorities to accuse their critics of criminal offenses in order to then be able to portray them publicly and without contradiction as dishonorable and despicable people. On behalf of the Damas de Blanco , its spokeswoman said, following the group's weekly silent march in Havana, this time dedicated to Villar, that his death was tantamount to murder through neglect by the government, which refused to recognize Villar's rights. The same thing happened to Orlando Zapata Tamayo two years earlier. Oppositionists Guillermo Fariñas and Oswaldo Payá , who have received international human rights awards for their commitment, as well as other prominent dissidents also blamed the Cuban government for Villar's death and called for an end to the repression measures against the opposition. Numerous members of opposition groups reported temporary arrests and other official measures to prevent dissidents from attending Villar's funeral and funeral in Contramaestre and from holding sympathy rallies.

Foreign reactions

The United States government expressed dismay, praising Villar as a “young and courageous defender of human rights” and calling for greater international attention to the human rights situation as well as international monitors for the prisons and detainees in Cuba. On behalf of the European Union , its High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton , expressed her horror and, referring to the Orlando Zapata Tamayo case, pointed out that Villar's death was the second death under similar circumstances in a very short period of time which raises "serious doubts" about the Cuban judiciary and penal system. The Spanish government appealed to the Cuban government to release all political prisoners. In Latin America, the government of Chile picked up on the death and expressed concern about the human rights situation in Cuba. The Mexican government also issued a public declaration of condolences to the family and friends of the deceased, expressed concern at the reports on the background of the death and promised that the protection of human rights would remain an important topic in the regular bilateral talks with the Cuban government to address. On January 23, 2012, the German Federal Government, through its Commissioner for Human Rights Policy , Markus Löning , also expressed its "deep dismay" and called on Cuba to release all political prisoners, to allow unrestricted freedom of expression and to hold democratic elections. Löning also called on the Cuban government to "release the prominent dissident Guillermo Fariñas immediately", although this had already been reported three days earlier by CNN, the EFE news agency and Yoani Sánchez, among others . On January 24th, the Italian government made a statement , with Foreign Minister Terzi offering condolences and asking for more information on the case. He also announced that he would try harder with the international community to urge the Cuban government to release more political prisoners and to make progress in respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Amnesty International and other human rights organizations

The world's most respected human rights organization, Amnesty International , commented on the Wilman Villar case on January 20, 2012: According to AI, Villar was a prisoner of conscience and the Cuban government is responsible for his death . The incident is a shocking reminder that the Raúl Castro-led government continues to tolerate dissent. Villar's death sheds light on the desperate situation of the rest of the political prisoners in Cuban prisons, who are to be released immediately and unconditionally. Amnesty International had planned to launch an international publicity campaign for Villar's release on January 20, but news of his death was anticipated. The global human rights organization Human Rights Watch also condemned the Cuban government for Villar's death. His case shows how it deals with dissenting opinions. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), which is not approved by the government but is tolerated apart from media defamation, has been keeping Villar as a political prisoner since December. On January 23, the CCDHRN requested the Cuban Interior Ministry to inspect the Villar case to verify the assumption that his death was avoidable and that his punishment was unfair and disproportionate. The government had not disclosed a single piece of evidence since it declared on January 21 that it had ample evidence and testimony that Villar was neither a dissident nor on a hunger strike.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Imágenes de Marcha opositora en Contramaestre muestran a joven opositor Wilman Villar ahora en estado crítico ( Memento of January 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in: Directorio Democrático Cubano of January 18, 2012, accessed on January 23 2012 (Spanish)
  2. ↑ Sandro Benini: Cuba: Castro continues to rely on repression in: Die Presse of October 13, 2011, accessed on January 24, 2012
  3. ↑ Jeff Franks (Reuters): Catholic Church condemns assaults on Cuba dissidents in: Huffington Post of September 5, 2011, accessed January 24, 2012 (English)
  4. ↑ Juan Tamayo: Human rights group says abuses in Cuba are growing in: Miami Herald of July 6, 2011, accessed via Cuba Study Group on January 24, 2012 (English)
  5. ↑ Cuba: Nonviolent political prisoner dies after hunger strike Report on the website of Amnesty International Germany of February 24, 2010, accessed on January 23, 2012
  6. ↑ Cuba celebrates a record: More arrests than ever before in: taz.de on January 12, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012
  7. ↑ Observatorio denuncia un aumento de la violencia contra las Damas de Blanco EFE report in: lainformacion.com from August 12, 2011, accessed on January 24, 2012 (Spanish)
  8. ↑ 'El nivel de violencia policial contra los disidentes pacíficos fue el más alto en los últimos años'  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: El Mundo of September 7, 2011, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.elmundo.es  
  9. ↑ The dissident with a bald head in: taz.de of May 10, 2011, accessed on January 23, 2012
  10. ↑ Entierran preso político cubano, muerto al día 50 en huelga de hambre in: La Red 21 of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  11. ↑ Cuba lashes out at the US over criticism of prisoner's death in: CNN, January 21, 2012, accessed January 23, 2012
  12. ↑ a b Un típico cubano: carpintero, albañil y vendedor ambulante in: ABC of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish)
  13. ↑ a b Yanet Pérez Moreno: “Wilman deja huérfanas a dos niñas pequeñas” Interview with José Daniel Ferrer in: Cuba Encuentro from January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  14. ^ A b La viuda de Villar Mendoza, a esRadio: "No me dejaron ver el cadáver" in: esRadio from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish)
  15. ↑ Yusmila Reyna Ferrera: La tiranía de los Castro mostrará al Papa Benedicto XVI otra de sus víctimas ... in: Patria Pueblo y Libertad of January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish)
  16. ↑ a b c Knut Henkel: Human rights in Cuba: Prisoners starve themselves to death in: taz.de from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012
  17. ↑ a b Erika Olavarría: Fallcimiento de un disidente cubano por huelga de hambre in: RFI español of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish, with audio)
  18. ↑ Cuban dissident dies after hunger strike ( memento from January 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) in: ZEIT Online from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012
  19. ↑ a b Amnesty International: Cuban authorities 'responsible' for activist's death on hunger strike Report on the international AI homepage from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (English)
  20. ↑ Wilmar Villar Mendoza, 'muy grave' tras más de 50 días en huelga de hambre in: Diario de Cuba from January 15, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  21. ↑ a b c Nota informativa Declaration by the Cuban government in: Granma from January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish - partly incorrect German translation here )
  22. ↑ a b Filtran a la red certificado médico de golpiza que propinó Wilmar Villar a su esposa ( Memento from January 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in: Yohandry's Weblog from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish)
  23. ↑ a b c Human Rights Watch: Cuba: Dissident's Death Highlights Repressive Tactics Report on the HRW website of January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (English)
  24. ↑ a b c La viuda de Villar Mendoza acusa al régimen de 'manipulación' y 'engaño' in: Diario de Cuba of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish)
  25. ↑ a b c La viuda de Wilman Villar pide al régimen que le permita contar su versión en televisión in: Diario de Cuba of January 22, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  26. ↑ Detenidas ocho damas de blanco en Santiago de Cuba in: Cuba Encuentro of December 23, 2011, accessed on October 9, 2012 (Spanish)
  27. ↑ La esposa del disidente Wilman Villar alerta sobre la salud de éste, en huelga de hambre desde noviembre in: Periodista Digital from January 19, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  28. ↑ Intentan manipular la muerte de Wilmer Villar Mendoza en la provincia Santiago de Cuba in the blog La Koladita from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish)
  29. ↑ a b Cuba rechaza críticas de EEUU, España y UE; disidencia denuncia 50 arrestos  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: RNW Latinoamérica of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rnw.nl  
  30. ↑ Cuban prisoner buried in custody after death  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: OTZ.de from January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.otz.de  
  31. ↑ Entierran a preso cubano Wilman Villar en el oriente de Cuba in: RPP of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  32. ↑ a b World reacts to death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza in: Miami Herald from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (English)
  33. ↑ Pagina 2 page 2 of the print edition of the Granma newspaper of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  34. ^ Government denies report on dissident deaths in: Der Standard, January 21, 2012, accessed January 23, 2012
  35. ↑ ¿Por qué silencian estos muertos por huelga de hambre en cárceles, mientras difaman de Cuba? in: Cubadebate of January 23, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  36. ↑ Pagina 1 Front page of the print edition of the daily Granma from January 23, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  37. ↑ Las verdades de Cuba in: Granma from January 23, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish), German translation here ( Memento from February 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  38. ↑ Fidel Castro: La fruta que no Cayo in: Cubadebate of 25 January 2012 called (Spanish) 25 January 2012
  39. ↑ Widow Slams Official Version of Cuban Prisoner's Death in: Latin American Herald Tribune of January 22, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (English)
  40. ↑ Zoé Valdés : ¿Quién era Wilman Villar Mendoza? in: La Razón, January 21, 2012, accessed January 24, 2012 (Spanish)
  41. ↑ Ros-Lehtinen Mourns Death of Cuban Democracy Advocate Wilman Villar, Challenges Nations to Call for End to Cuban Tyranny ( Memento of April 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Message on the website of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives from January 19, 2012, accessed on January 24, 2012
  42. ↑ Haroldo Dilla Alfonso : Wilman Villar murió por todos in: Cuba Encuentro from January 23, 2012, accessed on January 24, 2012 (Spanish, English translation here )
  43. ↑ Armando Chaguaceda: La muerte de un joven cubano in: Havana Times of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 24, 2012 (Spanish, English translation here )
  44. ↑ Yoani Sánchez: Delincuentes comunes ( Memento from January 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in the Generación Y blog from January 21, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (Spanish, German translation here  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info : The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.desdecuba.com  
  45. ↑ Jeff Franks: Cuba's Ladies in White call dissident death "murder" in: Reuters of January 22, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (English)
  46. ↑ Las Damas de Blanco marchan por el preso fallecido en huelga de hambre in: BBC Mundo from January 22, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  47. ↑ Culpan al gobierno por la muerte de Wilman Villar Mendoza in: Radio y TV Martí from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  48. ↑ US reacts to Cuban dissident's death ( Memento from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in: Miami Herald from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012 (English)
  49. ↑ La UE dice que la muerte de Wilman Villar plantea “dudas” sobre el sistema judicial y penitenciario cubano in: Cuba Encuentro from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  50. ↑ Chile lamenta la muerte de Wilman Villar. La Habana le llama entrometido y mendaz in: Diario de Cuba of January 21, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  51. ↑ Lamenta México muerte del cubano Wilmar Villar Mendoza in La Crónica de Hoy of 21 January 2012 called (Spanish) 24 January 2012
  52. ↑ Dismay over the death of the Cuban dissident Villar Mendoza Press release of the Federal Foreign Office of January 23, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012
  53. ↑ Cuban dissident freed after death of fellow activist in: CNN.com from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (English)
  54. ↑ Guillermo Fariñas fue liberado tras 72 horas de detención in: Univisión of January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)
  55. ↑ Acaban de liberar a Guillermo Farinas Twitter message from Yoani Sánchez from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish), your message here in English one day later
  56. ↑ Minister Terzi's condolences on the death of Cuban dissident Wilmar Villar Mendoza Press release on the website of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of January 24, 2012, accessed on January 26, 2012 (English)
  57. ↑ Peter Orsi (Associated Press): Amnesty was set to recognize late Cuba dissident ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. News from January 20, 2012, accessed via registerguard.com on January 26, 2012 (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hosted2.ap.org
  58. ↑ Muere en huelga de hambre un disidente cubano condenado a 4 años de cárcel  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: EFEamerica.com from January 20, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2012 (Spanish)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.efeamerica.com  
  59. ↑ Andrea Rodriguez (Associated Press): Cuba: disidencia pide acceso a investigación por muerte de preso  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Univisión Noticias of January 23, 2012, accessed on January 26, 2012 (Spanish)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / feeds.univision.com  
personal data
SURNAME Villar Mendoza, Wilman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Villar, Wilman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban dissident
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Palma Soriano , Cuba
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 2012
Place of death Santiago de Cuba