Helimenes Leopoldo Castillo Atencio (born 30 September 1946 in

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

) also known as ''The Citizen'' is a Venezuelan

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, talk show host and political commentator. Castillo is best known for hosting the television ''program

Aló Ciudadano ''Aló Ciudadano'' (') was a Venezuelan talk show hosted by Leopoldo Castillo as the opposition counterpart of ''Aló Presidente'' launched by Hugo Chávez government in 1999. It was aired both on the Globovisión 24-hour television news networ ...

'' on

Globovisión Globovisión is a 24-hour television news network. It broadcasts over-the-air in Caracas, Aragua, Carabobo and Zulia on UHF channel 33. Globovisión is seen in the rest of Venezuela on cable or satellite (Globovisión has an alliance with Dir ...

, which gave citizens the right to speak both to defend themselves and to reply to any news that was on the air and was born in response to the president's ''

Aló Presidente ''Aló Presidente'' (English: ''Hello, Mr. President'') was a long-running, unscripted talk show hosted by Hugo Chávez, former President of Venezuela. It was broadcast on Venezuelan state television and radio channels, including Venezolana de Te ...

program,''

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

. Aló Ciudadano was on the air for twelve years and stopped broadcast on August 16, 2013 in a last broadcast where multiple journalists were being fired or resigned. On January 14, 2020, Leopold was appointed by the

National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly () is the federal legislature of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was first elected in 2000 under the 1999 constitution. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by a ...

as president of multistate news television network

Telesur Telesur (stylized as teleSUR) is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela, and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. First proposed in 2005 and subsidized ...

. He is currently based in Miami, with a new informative television program on MiraTV entitled ''Ciudadano''.

References

Living people 1946 births People from Maracaibo 20th-century Venezuelan lawyers Venezuelan political commentators 21st-century Venezuelan lawyers {{Venezuela-bio-stub