CARACAS, Venezuela — A Venezuelan farmer who staged repeated hunger strikes to protest a government-sanctioned takeover of his farm has died in a military hospital in Caracas, his family said.
Franklin Brito's emaciated figure had become a symbol for opponents of President Hugo Chavez, and they joined the family in accusing the government of violating his rights.
Brito's family announced his death in a statement Monday night, saying his "body stopped carrying out vital functions today."
The 49-year-old farmer began his protests in 2004, demanding that Chavez's government acknowledge it violated his property rights by granting permission for neighbors to move onto his farm — a strategy that has been repeated in many places as Chavez's socialist-oriented government has backed seizures of farms it deems unproductive.
Brito lived out his final months withering away in the military hospital, where he was taken against his will in December by authorities who picked him up from his protest camp outside the offices of the Organization of American States.
Government officials have disputed Brito's account of the land dispute, saying they had acted properly in the case and at times questioning his mental health. Officials maintained that their only aim in taking him to the hospital was to preserve his life.
"President Hugo Chavez's government ignored the request by Franklin, the demands of his family and the calls by international organizations for him to have access to the medical assistance chosen by him," Brito's family said in its statement.
His relatives said Brito stood for "the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for living in freedom."
Brito's daughter, Angela, told the Venezuelan television station Globovision on Tuesday morning that the family was waiting for his body to be turned over, and had been told an autopsy was being performed. The farmer's brother, Hector Brito, said Monday night that the family was upset the body had not been turned over.
Angela Brito said her father's fight "was a struggle for human rights."
There was no immediate reaction from government officials.
Chavez's government says that over the past eight years, it has seized more than 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of farmland, targeting property that officials contend was either fallow, underused or whose ownership could not be proven through documents.
The government has said its aims are to boost food production and aid the landless, but critics say the measures have often targeted working farms and are hurting food output.
Brito's public struggle — which his family said involved more than eight hunger strikes — began in November 2004 in a city plaza in Caracas. He refused food for nine days demanding the return of his farm, which had been taken over a year earlier. He ended that first hunger strike after the authorities promised to tend to his case.
But in July 2005, Brito sewed his mouth shut to protest what his family called the government's failure to live up to its promise. Later, he grabbed attention cutting off a finger in front of the television cameras.
He had intensified his protests in the past year.
Alfredo Romero, a lawyer who represented Brito for a time, told Globovision that he was in the hospital "against his will at all times."