Guaidó’s mentor, the Venezuelan opposition Leopoldo López flees to Spain | World

Leopoldo López was arrested in 2014 after leading protests against President Nicolás Maduro. He was granted provisional liberty in 2017. During his house arrest, López became a mentor to opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who earlier last year invoked the Constitution to assume an interim presidency and launched a campaign to overthrow Nicolás Maduro.

After the failure of the military uprising in April 2019, Leopoldo López took refuge first in the Chilean diplomatic residence, and then in the Embassy of Spain, after the failure of the military rebellion of April 30 against Nicolás Maduro.

That morning, the opposition leader was released from his house arrest by the men of General Cristhoper Figuera, who then headed the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), the former Chavez politician. Previously, López spent three and a half years in a jail at the Ramo Verde military prison and another 21 months at his home in Caracas, thanks to a house-to-prison measure. The Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) maintains a headquarters near the Spanish embassy, ​​according to information from the Venezuelan press.

The adversary’s family is already in Spain

At the beginning of June of the same year, Lilian Tintori, López’s wife, and their youngest son, who remained with the opposition leader at the Embassy, ​​fled to Spain in what the Madrid government defined as “an exercise of freedom from His family remains in the Spanish capital, including his father, Leopoldo López Gil, a deputy elected by the right-wing Popular Party.

Leopoldo López was sentenced for public incitement to violence to almost 14 years in prison in a trial organized by Chavismo, according to the prosecutor in the case, Franklin Nieves.

After the replacement of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, Jesús Silva, the Spanish Foreign Ministry assured that it would not change López’s status.

But this decision coincided with the change of government in Madrid, led by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union (EU), further away from Guaidó and, therefore, from López.

Since this diplomatic change was made public, speculation has begun about how the new ambassador would influence the performance of the Venezuelan opponent.