The American administration has condemned the administration in Caracas over the passing of a imprisoned political dissident, describing it as a "clear indication of the vile character" of President Nicolás Maduro's rule.
The political prisoner died in his prison cell at the El Helicoide facility in Caracas, where he had been held for in excess of twelve months, as stated by human rights organisations and opposition groups.
The Venezuelan government said that the 56-year-old showed symptoms of a heart attack and was rushed to a hospital, where he died on Saturday.
This new intervention from the United States is part of an intensifying exchange of rhetoric between the White House and President Maduro, who has claimed America of seeking regime change.
In the past few months, the US has increased its armed forces deployment in the Latin America and has executed a number of deadly attacks on vessels it claims have been used for trafficking drugs.
US President Donald Trump has alleged Maduro personally of being the head of one of the country's drug cartels—an accusation the Venezuelan president categorically refutes—and has threatened armed intervention "by land".
"He had been 'unjustly imprisoned' in a 'facility for mistreatment'," said the US State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
The opposition figure was arrested in that year after participating with many opposition figures to challenge the results of that year's election for president.
Venezuela's government-controlled election council declared Maduro the winner, even though counts by rivals indicating their nominee had triumphed by a landslide.
The elections were broadly rejected on the global scene as neither free nor fair, and triggered unrest across the country.
The former governor, who was in charge of the coastal region, was indicted of "stoking division" and "terrorism" for questioning Maduro's declaration of success.
Venezuelan advocacy group Foro Penal has expressed alarm over deteriorating conditions for detained dissidents in the Latin American nation.
"Another detained dissident has died in Venezuelan jails. He had been held for a year, in isolation," posted Alfredo Romero, the group's president, on a social media platform.
He said that he had only been allowed one meeting from his child during the whole time of his imprisonment. He also mentioned that seventeen detained dissidents have died in the country since 2014.
Political rivals have also denounced the government over the passing of Díaz.
María Corina Machado, a prominent opposition leader who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize but who stays in hiding to escape capture, stated that the governor's demise was not a one-off event.
"Unfortunately, it joins an alarming and difficult sequence of deaths of political prisoners detained in the wake of the after the vote crackdown," she posted.
The Democratic Unitary Platform declared that the former governor "died unjustly".
His own political party, Democratic Action (AD), also paid tribute to the ex-leader, stating he had been held without justice without proper legal procedure and had been kept in circumstances "which violated his human rights".
Tensions between the US and Venezuela have become progressively worse over what Trump has described as actions to curb the influx of drugs and immigrants into the US.
Maduro has conversely claimed the US of using its drug enforcement efforts as an pretext to remove his administration and gain control of Venezuela's enormous oil reserves.
The United States has also stationed a significant fleet—its most substantial deployment in the area in decades—along with thousands of soldiers.
In a related action, the Venezuelan military allegedly enlisted over five thousand six hundred soldiers in a single event on Saturday, in answer to what army commanders termed US "intimidation".
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