"You cannot have democracy if people are not free." – Leopoldo López #TEDTalks

There was one thing that I would think about every single day. Why I was in prison. Every day I thought about what freedom and democracy meant. And it was there in a cell two by two in solitary confinement that I really got to understand what freedom was. And it became clear to me that freedom is not about one thing. In fact, freedom is about the possibility of doing many things. It's a possibility to speak out, to express your mind. It's a possibility to move around in your country. It's a possibility to assemble with whomever you want to assemble, to pray to pray, to own property. And all of those things were taken away from me and from millions of Venezuelans. And it also became very clear to me that freedom and democracy were two sides of a coin. We're interdependent. I had a window and I could see through the crack of that window that there was a tree and in that tree there was a hawk and I contemplated that animal for hours and hours. And one day a guard told me because I would always tell the guards about the hawk. He said, "You know, the hawk is injured. Went to a barb wire and he's injured. " And I said, "Bring it to me. " And to my surprise, they brought it to me. Maybe because they thought he was going to die. And then one day after a couple of months of they came to my cell, they threw a blanket in the hog, they took it away. Of course, it affected me. But less than a day after, that hog was in the same tree. and he reassured me that it doesn't matter how low you are, how low percentage possibilities you have to succeed, there is always possibility to do so. So I now have that ego here and I have it always with me as a reminder that we can always rise up to all of the challenges. So I ask all of you to stand up, to speak out, to do something about our freedom. This is our time. Think of 25 years and let's give our children a free world with human rights, democracy, and respect for all.