 The United Nations, along with several other organizations and institutions, have criticized the trial due to a lack of due process in the court's handling of the case, as well as a lack of fair hearing for the defense, who had under three hours to defend themselves to the government's 600 hours.The government's use of delays to silence witnesses for the defense, as well as their direct barring of 58 of 60 witnesses, was also condemned.On 4 January 2015, in response to US requests to free López, Maduro offered to exchange López "man to man" for Oscar López Rivera, the Puerto Rican independence activist imprisoned in the U.S.