Oppositionsledare släppt – hålls i husarrest

Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971) is a Venezuelan politician, activist, and political prisoner. He co-founded the political party Primero Justicia in 2000 with Henrique Capriles Radonski and Julio Borges, and was elected mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas in the regional elections held in July 2000. Administrative sanctions were imposed on López by Venezuela's Comptroller's Office in 2004, disqualifying him from holding public office for six years (beginning in 2008, at the completion of his term as mayor), following allegations of nepotism and misappropriation of funds. Opposition groups in Venezuela criticized these charges as fabricated. López 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. That ruling was ignored by Venezuelan officials. He was National Coordinator of another political party, Voluntad Popular, which he founded in 2009, until his imprisonment in 2014. Opinion polls in late 2014 showed that López was among the most popular politicians in Venezuela. He called for peaceful protests in February 2014. He was arrested on 18 February 2014 and charged with arson and conspiracy; murder and terrorism charges were dropped. Human rights groups expressed concern that the charges were politically motivated. His imprisonment was controversial; the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the release of those arrested in connection with the protests. 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. His wife, Lilian Tintori, reported that he rejected an offer in 2017 to serve out the remainder of his term under house arrest, referencing other political prisoners and saying "he had to be the last to leave". Lopez has received multiple awards from NGOs and other groups for his activism.

The Crisis in Venezuela refers to the socioeconomic crisis that Venezuela has undergone since Hugo Chávez's tenure and which extended over the years into the current presidency of Nicolás Maduro. During the year 2016, for example, consumer prices rose 800%, the economy contracted by 18.6%, and hunger escalated to the point that the "Venezuela's Living Conditions Survey" (ENCOVI) found nearly 75 percent of the population had lost an average of at least 8.7 kg (19.4 lb) in weight due to a lack of proper nutrition. The murder rate in 2015 was 90 per 100,000 people according to the Observatory of Venezuelan Violence (compared to 5 per 100,000 in the US). The crisis affected the average life of Venezuelans on various levels; the rise of unemployment, which resulted in the emergence of social movements aimed at changing the economic and productive model, as well as questioning the political system and demanding a democratic renewal. The most important social movement is the Venezuelan student movement, which has arisen mainly due to precariousness and economic conditions. Political corruption, scarcity of basic products, closure of companies, deterioration of productivity and competitiveness, and high dependence on oil are other problems that have also contributed to the worsening crisis.