Juan Oropeza Riera[1] (24 April 1906 – 29 November 1971) was a Venezuelan lawyer, diplomat, writer, educator and political scientist.
In his youth, he opposed the dictatorial regime of President Juan Vicente Gómez and became a member of the student-led movement called "Generation of 1928".
Upon his return to Venezuela he became a founding member of Acción Democrática, one of the two most prominent political parties in the nation's republican history, alongside such important figures as Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa, Mariano Picón Salas and later Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt.
He took up Paris as his permanent residence during the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, where he befriended such personalities as poet Paul Éluard, writers Jorge Luis Borges, Nicolás Guillén, Miguel Ángel Asturias and painters Salvador Dalí, Marie Laurencin and Pablo Picasso.
Some of his literary works include: Sucre, Cuatro siglos de historia venezolana, En perpetua fuga, Sobre Inglaterra y los ingleses, Imparidad del destino americano, Breve Historia de Venezuela, Fronteras and Del tiempo en que vivimos.