Venezuela to Probe Whether Hunger Striker's Familiy Had Role in His Death

Venezuelan prosecutors will investigate whether the family of a man who died during a hunger strike on Aug. 30 facilitated his death, Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said in statement.

Franklin Brito refused to eat for more than a year to protest what he said was the seizure of his farm by President Hugo Chavez’s government. He died in a military hospital after being moved there in January against his will. The government says he wasn’t forced to eat while hospitalized.

The government says it never expropriated his land and that Brito’s death is being used by the opposition for political purposes before congressional elections scheduled for Sept. 26.

“Anyone who may have induced an individual to commit suicide or who has helped him achieve that end will be punished with a prison sentence of seven to 20 years,” Ortega Diaz said in a statement.

Calls by Bloomberg News to Brito’s wife, Elena, went unanswered.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net.

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