CARACAS, May 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A man detained during protests following Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's controversial re-election last year has died in state custody, an opposition leader and an NGO said.

Lindomar Amaro, 27, was arrested for "inciting hatred, harassment, and possession of a weapon of war," according to a military report, and was being held in Tocoron prison, a maximum-security facility located in Venezuela's northern Aragua state.

The Venezuela-based Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners said Sunday that Amaro died in Tocoron prison on May 3.

"The reported cause was hanging inside his cell," the NGO wrote on the social media platform X, noting that Amaro had previously "attempted to kill himself."

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who claimed the opposition's victory in the July 2024 presidential elections in which Maduro was re-elected, accused the president of responsibility for Amaro's death.

"This is one of the most horrendous crimes this regime has committed. Let no one doubt it: this death has ONE person responsible: Maduro," Machado said on her X account.

Maduro's proclamation last year for a third consecutive term sparked protests in which 28 people were killed and some 2,400 detained. More than 2,000 have been released.

However, activists say that the arrests of opponents have not ceased.

At least a dozen "political prisoners" have died in Venezuelan state custody since 2014, according to human rights activists.

The Committee to Free Political Prisoners said on Sunday that, with Amaro's death, at least six detainees have died between 2024 and 2025, "confirming a policy of neglect and impunity within the prison system."

The NGO Foro Penal estimates that there are more than 900 political prisoners in Venezuela.