Liévano Aguirre was born on 24 July 1917 in Bogotá, Colombia to Nicolás Liévano Danies and Emilia Aguirre.[2]
In 1939, Liévano Aguirre studied Philosophy and Letters at the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé and went on to receive a degree in law at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, graduating in 1944. While at La Javeriana, Liévano Aguirre led a student committee that would go on to organise a major strike in May 1938.[3]