Samuel Perez de León (A.K.A. Samuel Pérez-Attías) was born in Guatemala, and is an economist. He teaches economics at the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and the Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala. .He used to write an op-ed column in El Periodico, which was recently closed due to financial constraints. Its editor is in prison facing spurious charges. Perez still contributes opinion pieces to the online newspaper Plaza Publica. He emigrated to Canada in 2006 and has done research about poverty and inequality in Guatemala. His son, Samuel Pérez Alvarez, is one of the founders of the Semilla political party, established in 2018 and currently elected Congressman for a second term in Guatemala.