[4] At some time between August and September 2011, he joined the Cuban Patriotic Union and worked on dissident activity.
[1] He was sent to Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital in January 2012 after suffering health problems.
The government claimed he had multiple organ failure, pneumonia, and septic shock.
[7][8] Amnesty International designated Villar a prisoner of conscience, the announcement coming one day after his death.
[2][11] The government also stated he was not a dissident, but that he had been arrested for violence and injuring his wife at the 2011 protest.