Leopoldo Castillo

{{Short description|Venezuelan lawyer}}

File:Leopoldo Castillo.jpg

Helimenes Leopoldo Castillo Atencio (born 30 September 1946 in Maracaibo, Venezuela) also known as The Citizen is a Venezuelan lawyer, talk show host and political commentator.{{Cite web|title=Castillo Atencio Leopoldo Helimenes - Edo. Miranda - Venezuela {{!}} Dateas.com|url=https://www.dateas.com/es/persona_venezuela/castillo-atencio-leopoldo-helimenes-10303716|access-date=2021-08-02|website=www.dateas.com|language=es}} Castillo is best known for hosting the television program Aló Ciudadano on Globovisión, 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 program, Hugo Chávez.

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.{{Cite web|last1=Hernáiz|first1=Hugo Pérez|last2=Smilde|first2=David|date=2013-05-30|title=Turmoil at Globovisión|url=https://www.venezuelablog.org/turmoil-at-globovision/|access-date=2021-08-02|website=Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2018-03-11|title=Leopoldo Castillo anunció que se retira de Globovisión: "Me voy sin ningún sabor amargo" - Venezuela|url=http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/187612/leopoldo-castillo-anuncio-que-se-retirara-de-globovision/|access-date=2021-08-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180311215325/http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/187612/leopoldo-castillo-anuncio-que-se-retirara-de-globovision/|archive-date=2018-03-11}}

On January 14, 2020, Leopold was appointed by the National Assembly of Venezuela as president of multistate news television network Telesur.{{Cite web|date=2020-01-16|title=Las razones por las que Leopoldo Castillo aceptó la Presidencia de Telesur|url=https://www.elnacional.com/mundo/alnavio-las-razones-por-las-que-leopoldo-castillo-acepto-la-presidencia-de-telesur/|access-date=2021-08-02|website=EL NACIONAL|language=es}}{{Cite web|date=2020-01-13|title=Guaidó quiere reestructurar Telesur|url=https://www.semana.com/mundo/articulo/guaido-quiere-reestructurar-telesur/647915/|access-date=2021-08-02|website=Semana.com Últimas Noticias de Colombia y el Mundo|language=spanish}} He is currently based in Miami, with a new informative television program on MiraTV entitled Ciudadano.{{Cite web|title=Biografia de Leopoldo Castillo -|url=https://leopoldocastillo.com/biografia-de-leopoldo-castillo/|access-date=2021-08-02|language=en-US}}