Rafael López-Pintor first experienced democracy as a visiting graduate student to Chile in the late 1960s. The native of Spain traveled to Santiago, Chile, to study political science, a subject dominated by supporters of the Francisco Franco regime in his home country. His experience with Latin American democracy would be brief, stopped short by the coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in 1973. López-Pintor returned to Madrid to pursue a doctorate in law and support his generation’s push toward a democratic Spain.

“This was a big challenge for me, how to live working on democracy between two dictatorships, the Chilean one and the Spanish one,” he said.

Within a few years of Franco’s death, López-Pintor managed the main public opinion polling agency of the prime minister’s office—work that included the first electoral research conducted in the young democracy. His interest in democracy would eventually lead to a career as an elections expert in more than 20 countries, including work for IFES in Nigeria, Yemen, West Bank/Gaza and Afghanistan.

“Anyone looking at what IFES is doing can take the thread and go back to the beginning,” he said. “There is an uninterrupted work being done worldwide for the better prospect of elections and democracy in the world.”

López-Pintor admits he has a special affinity for Latin America. Some of his earliest international work was supporting elections in Nicaragua and El Salvador for the United Nations. López-Pintor disputes assertions that democracy assistance has changed little on the ground. In Latin America, women are more involved in politics, election administration is improved and citizens are more likely to challenge leaders who do not meet their needs. Still, more needs to be done to strengthen Latin America’s economic situation and its democratic institutions.

“The people still want democracy, they want the rule of law, and they want freedom,” he said.