Talks at Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2023
Leopoldo López is a Freedom Activist from Venezuela. He was a political prisoner from 2014 to 2020 after being sentenced to fourteen years in prison for leading non-violent street protests and civil resistance in 2014. After spending seven years in confinement, he managed to escape the autocratic regime of Nicolas Maduro in October of 2020 and was able to travel to Spain where he lives with his family. From 2000 to 2008 Leopoldo López was mayor of the Municipality of Chacao in Caracas and was later illegally disqualified to run for office.
He won his case at the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In 2009, he founded the political party and freedom movement called Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) and became its national coordinator. Leopoldo López is the co-founder of the World Liberty Congress (www.worldlibertycongress.org), an organization launched in 2022 that seeks to serve as the counterweight against the global autocratic alliance by connecting non-violent, pro-democracy activists from across the globe with the goal of having them share information and tactics that meaningfully further their nonviolent cause at home.
Also, presently Leopoldo López is a visiting fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C and has also been a lecturer in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in Stanford University.