Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971) is a Venezuelan politician currently under house arrest. 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. He is the National Coordinator of another political party, Voluntad Popular, a Socialist International affiliated party, which he founded in 2009. López has received multiple awards from NGOs and other organizations for his activism.
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, until 2014), following allegations of nepotism and misappropriation of funds. Opposition groups in Venezuela criticized these charges as fabricated. 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. That ruling was ignored by Venezuelan officials.