Battling Authoritarian Regimes in Venezuela and Beyond: A Conversation with Venezuelan Opposition Leader Leopoldo López

Date: 

Monday, April 25, 2022, 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Location: 

Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South

For a recording of this event, click here.

Speakers: Leopoldo López (HKS ’96), former Presidential Candidate and political prisoner in Venezuela; Ricardo Hausmann, Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy and Founder and Director of Harvard's Growth Lab at Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Moderated by: Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government; Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University

Venezuela is facing one of the worst political, economic and humanitarian crises in the world. Led by an authoritarian regime that represses political opponents and systematically violates civil rights, the country has experienced the largest economic collapse outside of war in almost half a century.

The discussion will focus on the fight against authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and beyond, based on former political prisoner and opposition leader Leopoldo López’ own experiences. López will share his learnings from political organizing and battling the Chavez and Maduro regimes in Venezuela. The discussion will then draw parallels with other cases of resistance movements against authoritarian regimes around the world.

Leopoldo Lopez is former presidential candidate and political prisoner in Venezuela. He began his political career as Mayor of the Chacao district in Caracas, serving two terms between 2000 and 2008. At the end of his administration, he resisted an order led by the Chavez government to ban him, along with other politicians, from running for public office. In response, he co-founded and became the national coordinator of a new political party, Voluntad Popular (“Popular Will”) in 2009. He became a political prisoner in 2014, sentenced to 14 years in jail, sparking mass protests and international condemnation. After serving three years in prison, López was released to house arrest in 2017 where he continued to lead the opposition movement. Today López lives with his family in exile in Spain. He holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Ricardo Hausmann is the founder and Director of Harvard’s Growth Lab and the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. Under his leadership, the Growth Lab has grown into one of the most well-regarded and influential hubs for research on international development. Before joining Harvard University, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

Presented in collaboration with Harvard Venezuelan Student Association (HVSA)