Leopoldo López is a Venezuelan dissident, former political prisoner, and co-founder of the World Liberty Congress.
From 2000–2008, López served two terms as mayor of the municipality of Chacao, finishing his mandate with a 92% approval rate. He also won third place at the World Mayor Awards and the 2007 and 2008 “Premio Transparencia,” awarded by Transparency International.
In 2009, he founded the Voluntad Popular political party and has served as its national coordinator ever since. In 2014, he was unjustly detained by the Maduro regime and was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment. He spent four years in a military prison, a year and a half in house arrest, and another year and a half in the Spanish embassy in Caracas under political asylum. In October 2020, López escaped from Venezuela through Colombia to join his family in Spain.
In 2022, he co-founded the World Liberty Congress, which seeks to serve as a counterweight against the global autocratic alliance by connecting non-violent, pro-democracy activists and leaders from across the globe.
From exile, López continues his fight for Venezuela’s democracy and freedom. While in prison, López was able to write two books: Preso pero Libre and Venezuela Energética. He has also published articles in major media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, and Le Monde, among others.
López has received several international awards, including the Harvard Alumni Achievement Award (2014), the Sakharov Prize for Freedom and Thought (2017), the NED’s Democracy Award (2013), the Geneva Summit Courage Award (2016), the Freedom and Democracy Award (2021), the Florida Governor’s Award (2017), the Bruno Leoni Award (2017), and the Libertad Cortes de Cádiz of the Cádiz City Hall (2015).
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