Death of a 20-year-old man arrested since 2017 for protesting against Nicolás Maduro's regime

"I will die", he told him Virgilio Jiménez to his sister the last time he spoke to him. The 20-year-old, jailed since 2017 after being arrested during protests against Nicolás Maduro's government, died shortly after due to a digestive hemorrhage.

Parents and human rights organizations, who buried him on Friday, they denounced the lack of adequate medical treatment in Uribana Prison, where he was detained in Barquisimeto (Lara State, West).

He is the eighth inmate of the place who dies under similar conditions so far this year., according to the NGO Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones (OVP), criticism of the government. "He started having a fever since December", he told the news agency AFP his sister Yoliani.

Virgilio was finally transferred on February 1 to a city hospital, but about four hours later, he was sent back to prison, Yoliani added.

His condition worsened and he was referred to the medical center on Tuesday, where he died at night due to hemorrhagic shock after several days of digestive bleeding.

When Yoliani arrived at the hospital that day, he found Virgilio "delirious".

"He said to me: Yoliani, I have the impression of dying"He said, a little later, when the young man went to the bathroom"he was overflowing with blood"

Virgilio has been imprisoned in Uribana since November 21, 2017 and was arrested by the army during a wave of opposition demonstrations against Maduro, which left 125 dead. He was accused of "terrorism", according to the OVP, and no hearing on the case has yet taken place.

His family had not seen him since last December. Two weeks ago, Virgilio called them on the phone to ask for medicine and food.

He then said, according to Yoliani, that in prison they gave him decomposed food, many times – even with worms.

In response to his request, the family brought medicine against the fever, but Yoliani complains about the guards banned the pbadage of these drugs.

"Already my brother is dead. All I ask is the justice and respect for the human rights of other prisoners."How did he.

(With information from AFP)