At a recent protest, dozens of university students in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, chant in the name of Julio Cesar Rivas.
The government arrested the 22-year-old student in August after a protest against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He was charged with inciting civil war and sent to one of Venezuela's most infamous prisons.
Fellow students went on a hunger strike to demand his release.
Calling Rivas a political prisoner, Rodolfo Spitaleri said the hunger strikers wanted to get the word out about the arrests of government opponents.
"We are taking extreme measures because the other measures we have taken before are not being answered," Spitaleri said.
Critics of Chavez say his government has been jailing dozens of key opponents — some of them students, some of them veteran politicians.
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