EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL<br/> 31 year old Wilmar Villar Mendoza has died while on a hunger strike.<br/> He had reached the 56th day.<br/> Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez says his death was caused by the hunger strike and also mistreatment by the Cuban government.<br/> (SOUNDBITE) ELIZARDO SANCHEZ, CUBAN COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, SAYING(Spanish):<br/> "We are blaming the Cuban government in a very clear way for this avoidable death because when a political prisoner goes on hunger strike, the first thing the Cuban government does is punish the prisoner, isolate him in a solitary confinement and high punishment cell and this, obviously, puts the protester's life at risk. It's what happened with Wilmar and the same thing happened to Orlando Zapata Tamayo."<br/> Mendoza had been taken to a hospital on January 14 as his condition deteriorated, and he died there.<br/> He had been arrested in November for crimes including disobedience and resistance, Sanchez said.<br/> Video footage release by Jose Ferrer Garcia, a member of the Cuban Patriotic Union, showed what he said was the protest Mendoza had taken part in.<br/> Cuba drew international condemnation when another imprisoned dissident, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died in February 2010 after an 85-day hunger strike.<br/> Marie-Claire Fennessy, Reuters
