[4][5][6] López supporters say he was never charged with a crime, tried, or allowed to rebut the allegations; he sued Venezuela and his case was reviewed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which issued a unanimous ruling in his favor.

[15] In September 2015, he was found guilty of public incitement to violence through supposed subliminal messages, being involved with criminal association, and was sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison.

Franklin Nieves [es], the prosecutor that accused him, called the judicial process a "farce" and said that Nicolás Maduro pressured him and Public Ministry superiors to defend "false evidence" against López.

[22] Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz said that she was pressured by Diosdado Cabello to accuse López of the deaths of Bassil Da Costa and Juan Montoya.

[44] In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia, the couple said that they conceived Federica Antonieta in jail during a conjugal visit, in a bathroom, where cockroaches crawled around them.

[45] López worked as an analyst and consultant for the chief economist to the Planning Vice-President of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) between 1996 and 1999; he was a professor of Institutional Economy in the Economics Department at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

Under López, work began on several major construction projects, including the Palos Grandes plaza, the new seat of the Mercado Libre, a new headquarters for the Andrés Bello Education Unit, and a massive underground parking facility.

[56] The City Mayors Foundation, which sponsors the contest, wrote that "It would be easy to caricature him as the scion of the country's wealthy elite, standing in the way of Chávez' social justice crusade.

But López' record on activism has shown a commitment to promoting legal equality and his constituents speak passionately about a mayor who has delivered on public services and funding new infrastructure.

"[36] During events surrounding the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, NPR said López "orchestrated the public protests against President Hugo Chávez and played a central role in the citizen's arrest of Chavez's interior minister", Ramón Rodríguez Chacín.

[60] In an April 2008 ruling announced by Venezuela's chief prosecutor and then upheld by court decision,[61] López and several hundred other Venezuelans were barred from running in the November 2008 elections, for reasons of alleged corruption.

[64][65] As the best-known banned politician, López contested the sanction, arguing that the right to hold elected office could only be rescinded in the wake of a civil or criminal trial.

[67] In July, the Commission agreed to hear his case[68] and commented that the two years that had elapsed since López had filed a motion asking the Court to annul the ban constituted an "undue delay".

[80] The Human Rights Watch "described political discrimination as a defining feature of Mr. Chávez's presidency," singling out López and the "measure that disqualifies candidates from running for public office because of legal claims against them".

[84] López again filed a complaint, this time with the Human Rights Commission of the international Mercosur Parliament, on which Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are represented, and on which Venezuela has observer status.

[89] According to The Guardian, US diplomatic cables at the time (one titled "The López Problem") stated: "He is often described as arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry – but party officials also concede his popularity, charisma and talent as an organiser".

"[97] Hours after the arrest, Maduro addressed a cheering crowd of supporters in red, saying that he would not tolerate "psychological warfare" by his opponents and that López must be held responsible for his "treasonous acts".

[109] On 13 February 2015, armed masked men believed to be military used blowtorches to cut through the bars of López and former mayor Daniel Ceballos [es]' prison cells.

[127][128] If the sentence condemns me you will be more fearful to read it than I will be to hear it, because you know that I'm innocent On 10 September 2015, after spending over a year and a half imprisoned in Ramo Verde, López's trial was set to conclude.

[87] Human Rights Watch said: "The Venezuelan government has openly embraced the classic tactics of an authoritarian regime, jailing its opponents, muzzling the media, and intimidating civil society.

"With López's imprisonment and the brutally repressive tactics that police, armed forces, and paramilitary groups are using against his supporters, the Venezuelan state has lost any democratic façade it may have had", said HRF chairman Garry Kasparov.

"[134] The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled in 2014 that López was detained arbitrarily and that the Venezuelan government "violated several of their civil, political and constitutional rights" while demanding his immediate release.

[109] On 19 December 2014, the chief diplomat of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, said that she was "seriously concerned" about "continuous arbitrary arrests" in Venezuela, with the EU resolution noting that Leopoldo López "suffered physical and psychological torture" and also denounced the situations of opposition mayors Daniel Ceballos and Vicencio Scarano.

[139] Amnesty International said, "The charges brought against Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López smack of a politically motivated attempt to silence dissent in the country."

[147][148][149] He was placed under house arrest by Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which cited case "irregularities" and health reasons for López's release; Reuters reports that the Bolivarian government "seems to be calculating that his return home may ease domestic protests".

[149] Following the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election which granted the Bolivarian government much more authority over Venezuela, SEBIN agents arrived at López's home in the early hours of 1 August 2017, and took him back to prison.

[156] On 2 May 2019, the Supreme Tribunal issued an arrest warrant for López, who exited the gates of the Spanish Embassy, with his wife Lilian Tintori, to speak with reporters, saying that Maduro's days were numbered.

López, who is a political mentor to opposition leader Juan Guaidó, had taken refuge in the Spanish ambassador's residence in Caracas since fleeing house arrest after the failure of a military uprising to overthrow Maduro in April 2019.

[168] On 9 December 2020, Leopoldo López started a tour in Latin America, travelling to Colombia and seeking to "strengthen" an "international front" against Nicolás Maduro, after the Venezuelan parliamentary election that year, which he considered fraudulent.

[170][171] The following day López met with Colombian President Iván Duque, and on 11 December he travelled to Cúcuta to meet Venezuelan migrants living in the border and learn about their problems.