The U.S. State Department Friday deplored the death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villár, “a young and courageous defender of human rights,” and said it “highlights the continuing problem of political repression, and political prisoners, in Cuba.”
Villár’s death Thursday also “underscores the urgent need for greater international scrutiny of Cuba’s human rights record and international monitoring of Cuba’s prisons and prisoner population,” said department spokeswoman Neda A. Brown.
Cuba does not allow the International Red Cross to inspect its prisons.
Brown added that the Villár case “underscores the importance of the president’s (Barack Obama) continued efforts to support the desire of the Cuban people to freely determine their own future.”
“We will continue to support, in the words of the president, ‘pockets of freedom’ in Cuba through Cuban American family visits and remittances, purposeful travel, and humanitarian assistance to dissidents and their families,” she added.
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