Skip to content London School of Economics and Political Science

Events Toggle navigation

Search

Events

Unchaining Venezuela: a struggle for democracy

Thursday 20 March 2025 7.00pm to 8.30pm

Hosted by the School of Public Policy and LSESU Spanish Society

In-person public event (LSE campus, venue TBC to ticketholders)

Speaker

Leopoldo López

Chair

Professor Andrés Velasco

Join us for a public event with Leopoldo López, political leader in Venezuela and prominent advocate for democracy. Mr López will share his experiences as a former leader of the Venezuelan opposition and reflect on the political challenges facing Venezuela today.

Meet our speaker and chair

Leopoldo López (@leopoldolopez) is a Venezuelan opposition leader and pro-democracy activist. He founded the Venezuelan opposition party Voluntad Popular and served as mayor of the Chacao municipality in Caracas. In 2014, Leopoldo was arrested on trumped-up charges for leading peaceful, nationwide protests denouncing Nicolás Maduro’s regime. After a 19-month show trial, he was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison. Today, he continues to be a leading voice in calling for democracy not only in Venezuela but also across the globe. Leopoldo is a co-founder of the World Liberty Congress, which he strongly believes will be instrumental in unifying pro-democracy and human rights activists to combat the global trend toward authoritarianism.

Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE. In 2017-19 he was a member of the G20 Eminent Persons Group. During 2015-16 he co-chaired the Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions. In 2013-16 he was a member of the Global Oceans Commission.

More about this event

The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents

Many speakers at LSE events also write for LSE Blogs, which present research and critical commentary accessibly for a public audience. Follow British Politics and Policy, the Business Review, the Impact Blog, European Politics and Policy and the LSE Review of Books to learn more about the debates our events series present.

Photographs taken on behalf of LSE are often used on our social media accounts, website and publications. At events, photographs could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, of speakers during the talk, and of audience members as they participate in the Q&A.

If you are photographed participating in an event Q&A but would not like your photograph to be stored for future use, please contact events@lse.ac.uk.

Please contact the Press Office if you would like to request a press seat or have a media query about this event, email LSE.Press.Events@lse.ac.uk. Please note that press seats are usually allocated at least 24 hours before each event.

We aim to make all LSE events available as a podcast subject to receiving permission from the speaker/s to do this, and subject to no technical problems with the recording of the event. Podcasts are normally available 1 week after the event. Podcasts and videos of past events can be found online.

Follow LSE public events on Twitter for notification on the availability of an event podcast, the posting of transcripts and videos, the announcement of new events and other important event updates. Event updates and other information about what’s happening at LSE can be found on the LSE's Facebook page and for live photos from events and around campus, follow us on Instagram. For live webcasts and archive video of lectures, follow us on YouTube.

LSE in Pictures is a selection of images taken by the school photographer.

If you are planning to attend this event and would like details on how to get here and what time to arrive, as well as on accessibility and special requirements, please refer to LSE Events FAQ. LSE aims to ensure that people have equal access to these public events, but please contact the events organiser as far as possible in advance if you have any access requirements so that arrangements, where possible, can be made. If the event is ticketed, please ensure you get in touch in advance of the ticket release date. Access Guides to all our venues can be viewed online.

LSE has now introduced wireless for guests and visitors in association with 'The Cloud', also in use at many other locations across the UK. If you are on campus visiting for the day or attending a conference or event, you can connect your device to wireless. See more information and create an account at Join the Cloud.
Visitors from other participating institutions are encouraged to use eduroam. If you are having trouble connecting to eduroam, please contact your home institution for assistance.
The Cloud is only intended for guest and visitor access to wifi. Existing LSE staff and students are encouraged to use eduroam instead.

From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.

Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Danieldominguez19 via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leopoldo_Lopez.JPG

Add to calendar

Share

Sign up for news about events