Leopoldo López

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Leopoldo López (2012)

Leopoldo López Mendoza (born April 29, 1971 in Caracas ) is a Venezuelan politician . From 2000 to 2008 he was mayor of the Municipios Chacao , one of the five municipalities of Greater Caracas. López has been chairman of the opposition party Voluntad Popular since 2009 . He played a leading role in the anti-government protests in 2014 .

He has been arrested several times since then, sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in 2015 and transferred from prison to house arrest in 2017 . Human rights organizations labeled him a political prisoner . On April 30, 2019, he was freed by soldiers who were not loyal to the government and ended up at the Spanish embassy after participating in protests .

Life

López spent his youth in Caracas. From 1989 to 1993 he studied sociology at Kenyon College in the US state of Ohio . He completed postgraduate studies at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in which he in 1996 with a Master of Public Policy graduated.

In 2000 he was one of the founders of the Primero Justicia party . From 2000 to 2008 he was mayor of Chacao de Caracas. In the first election, he was elected with a majority of 51%. When he was re-elected in 2004, his share of the vote was 79.5%.

In the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002, López was one of those who took to the streets against Chavez. He is one of the signatories of the so-called “Carmona Decree”, which was supposed to legitimize the putsch government under Pedro Carmona .

In 2007 López married the radio and television presenter and former kitesurfing master Lilian Tintori . The two have a daughter and a son.

In December 2009 he founded the Voluntad Popular Party ( people's will ). For the presidential election in October 2012 , López had initially declared his candidacy. But then he withdrew it and supported Henrique Capriles .

Withdrawal of the right to stand as a candidate

In 2008, Venezuela's Chief Auditor , Clodosbaldo Russián , deprived him of the right to stand for election in two cases for misappropriating public funds. This banned him from holding public office until 2014. As mayor of Chacao, he and 427 other politicians from both political camps were charged with corruption in 2005. He was not finally convicted because it is an "administrative penalty" provided for in Venezuela's anti-corruption law.

In September 2011, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled the sentence illegal because only an ordinary court could impose such a sentence in a criminal trial. However, the Court did not rule on the correctness of the corruption allegations against López. The Supreme Court in Venezuela described the judgment as " unenforceable ".

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch accuses the Venezuelan Supreme Court of protecting Hugo Chávez's “political agenda” instead of defending the law. The Carter Center published an open letter stating that Venezuela is the only country, other than the military tribunals of Alberto Fujimori's regime in Peru , that has rejected decisions by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Detention and house arrest

Since February 12, 2014 there have been student protests in Venezuela because of the lack of economic policy under President Nicolás Maduro from the protesters' point of view , which Leopoldo López had called for, among others (see Protests in Venezuela 2014 ). There were three deaths on the first day of the protest, including one supporter of the government and two opposition supporters. Eight members of the Sebin domestic intelligence agency were arrested on suspicion of being responsible for two of the dead . The chief of the secret service was deposed.

The public prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant against López on allegations of incitement to violence, membership in a criminal organization, murder and terrorism , which was eventually issued by a judge. López himself denied his guilt, but turned himself in to the authorities during another demonstration on February 18 and was taken to a military prison outside Caracas. The examining magistrate dropped the murder and terrorism charges but upheld the remainder of the custody on the remaining charges. A date for a detention test scheduled for May 8, 2014 was postponed at short notice.

International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch meanwhile demanded the immediate and unconditional release of López or clear evidence of his guilt. In the opinion of these organizations, López 'merely exercised his constitutional right to freedom of expression and freedom of demonstration . López 'role as one of the leading spokespersons for the opposition in the ongoing protests was taken on by his wife Lilian Tintori , who became known nationally and internationally almost overnight. The United Nations Human Rights Commission also classified the arrest as arbitrary and called for his release.

On September 10, 2015, the Caracas court sentenced him to 13 years, nine months and seven days imprisonment for inciting violence and conspiracy. His defense announced an appeal against the verdict. An amnesty law by the opposition majority in the Venezuelan parliament, which would also have benefited López, was declared invalid by the Supreme Court in April 2016.

He was transferred to house arrest in July 2017 ; the Supreme Court said there were "signs of irregularities in his case". On August 1, 2017, the regime arrested him again and sent him to Ramo Verde Prison.

Four days later, on August 5, 2017, Leopoldo López was released from prison and taken home, where he has been under house arrest ever since .

Leaving house arrest

On April 30, 2019, following a symbolic "pardon" from Juan Guaidó, he appeared at the La Carlota Air Force Base in Caracas, after being released from house arrest by a military unit . Diosdado Cabello , the vice-president of the Venezuelan Socialist Party , confirmed later that day that a unit of the Sebin domestic intelligence service had facilitated the liberation of López, which the New York Times described as involvement of relatives who were no longer loyal to the government in the liberation. The day after, according to witnesses, his home was ransacked by members of the SEBIN; electronic devices and food were stolen.

López called on the people of Venezuela to take to the streets to bring about the changes everyone dreamed of. During the mass demonstration that day, which focused on the eastern parts of Caracas around Chacao, he initially stayed as a guest at the Chilean embassy, ​​where he decided to move to the Spanish embassy. He is convinced that the dictatorship will end, that there are more Venezuelans who love their country than those who have destroyed the country with their corruption.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trasladan a Leopoldo López de nuevo a su casa eltiempo.com, from August 5, 2017 (Spanish)
  2. ^ Leopoldo López Mendoza. In: Oficina del Alcalde, Chacao. Archived from the original on December 31, 2007 ; Retrieved September 9, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Ingrid Núñez Muñoz, Nury Pineda Morán: Nuevos Partidos, Nuevos Liderazgos: Primero Justicia s3.amazonaws.com, accessed on April 25, 2019 (Spanish)
  4. ↑ Interim Venezuelan president sworn in BBC.co.uk, accessed April 25, 2019 (English)
  5. ↑ Acta de constitución del Gobierno de Transición Democrática y Unidad Nacional abc.es, accessed on April 25, 2019 (Spanish)
  6. ^ Tobias Lambert: Opposition in Venezuela elects its presidential candidate. In: amerika21. December 12, 2011, accessed June 15, 2012 .
  7. ↑ a b c d Jan Kühn: Venezuela argues about fighting corruption. In: amerika21. September 19, 2011, accessed October 19, 2011 .
  8. ↑ a b Chavez challenger remains switched off. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . October 18, 2011, accessed October 18, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos: Caso López Mendoza Vs. Venezuela. Fondo Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 1 de septiembre de 2011. Series C No. 233. In: corteidh.or.cr. September 1, 2011, accessed June 15, 2012 .
  10. ↑ HRW fustiga decisión del TSJ contra Leopoldo López. ( Memento from December 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: ultimasnoticias.com.ve , October 18, 2011
  11. ^ A Bolívar Ready to Fight Against the Bolivarian State. In: The New York Times , October 21, 2011
  12. ^ Declaration of the Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter on the Venezuelan Decision Regarding the Ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In: Carter Center , Oct. 21, 2011
  13. ↑ Ocho funcionarios del Sebin detenidos por hechos de violencia. ( Memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: ultimasnoticias.com.ve , February 26, 2014
  14. ↑ jueza Ordeno al Sebin capturar a Leopoldo López. In: eluniversal.com , February 13, 2013
  15. ↑ A deep rift through Venezuela. In: NZZ .ch , February 19, 2014
  16. ↑ The situation in Venezuela remains tense. In: amerika21.de , February 20, 2014
  17. ↑ Peter Gaupp: No progress in Venezuela: Split, hold off, suppress. In: nzz.ch , May 9, 2014
  18. ↑ Venezuela: Trial of opposition leader an affront to justice and free assembly. In: amnesty.org , February 19, 2014
  19. ↑ La pareja estrella de la política venezolana. In: semana.com , February 19, 2014, accessed March 7, 2014
  20. ^ Maduros next victim , NZZ, December 4, 2014
  21. ^ Opposition leader sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. In: faz.net
  22. ↑ Venezuela's top court strikes down opposition-backed amnesty law. In: uk.reuters.com , April 12, 2016 (English)
  23. ↑ Venezuelan opposition leader transferred to house arrest. In: zeit.de , July 8, 2017, accessed July 8, 2017
  24. ↑ Líderes políticos reaccionan ante traslado de Ledezma y López a Ramo Verde. In: La Patilla. August 1, 2017, Retrieved August 1, 2017 (European Spanish).
  25. ↑ Venezuela's Leopoldo Lopez retuns to house arrest. In: CNN. August 6, 2017, accessed on April 3, 2019 (en-EN).
  26. ↑ Venezuela's opposition leader López released from prison faz.net August 6, 2017
  27. ↑ Militares de Guaidó liberan a Leopoldo López del arresto domiciliario tras 5 años , lainformacion.com, April 30, 2019
  28. ↑ Juan Guaidó announces the final phase of his «Operation Freedom» in Venezuela. In: NZZ. May 1, 2019, accessed May 1, 2019 .
  29. ^ Another day of protest in Caracas; but it's not the end , NYT April 30, 2019
  30. ↑ a b Fuerzas chavistas allanaron y robaron la casa de Leopoldo López en Caracas , infobae, May 1, 2019
  31. ↑ Leopoldo López llama a "salir a la calle" a todos los venezolanos , rtve, April 30, 2019
  32. ↑ Leopoldo López y su familia dejan la embajada de Chile y se van a la de España tras su liberación , rtve, April 30, 2019

Web links

personal data
SURNAME López, Leopoldo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES López Mendoza, Leopoldo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Venezuelan politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Caracas