 López was released from house arrest on the morning of 30 April during the 2019 Venezuela uprising, with the assistance of defecting armed forces supportive of Juan Guaidó.Later in the day, López and his immediate family entered the Chilean Embassy, but moved to the Spanish Embassy in the early hours of 1 May 2019.According to Roberto Ampuero of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, López and his family moved to the Spanish Embassy after a "personal decision", noting that López and his wife both have Spanish ancestry.