Leopoldo López, the Venezuelan opposition leader currently under house arrest after allegedly instigating anti-government protests in early 2014, has retained strategy firm High Lantern Group to help the former politico tell his story to the international community.
López, a former mayor of the Venezuela city of Chacao who co-founded the Primero Justicia political party, was arrested on charges of arson and conspiracy related to the February 2014 protests against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. After being imprisoned for more than three years, López in July was transferred to house arrest.
International law firm Hogan Lovells in 2014 repped Venezuela on U.S. relations after President Obama imposed sanctions on the country for its crackdown on demonstrators during those protests.
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HLG will define and implement a strategic narrative and will provide communications support — which includes engaging in an influencer email program and creating a website, as well as traditional and social media outreach and thought leadership development — according to documents filed with the Justice Department in August. The firm will also advocate the release of Venezuelan political prisoners and support democracy in the country.
The pact was signed by High Lantern founding partner Robert Gluck, who previously managed external affairs for the Walt Disney Company’s worldwide vacation and leisure division and also served as a senior advisor on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 special election campaign.
Gluck and López were classmates at Kenyon College — where López received degrees in Economics and Sociology — and later helped establish human rights advocacy group Friends of a Free Venezuela, which called on López’s release, as well as the release of more than 100 other Venezuelan political prisoners.
HLG is conducting the campaign at “a very steep discount” rate of $100 per hour — an 80 percent reduction from what the firms normally charges — at a $5,000 per month minimum.
The New York-based firm, which specializes in strategy, thought leadership, reputation management and policy issues, maintains additional operations in Washington D.C.; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Asheville, NC; and Geneva, Switzerland.
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