CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Maria Colina Machado has long been face of resistance Venezuela’s ruling party for 26 years. From now on, she may also become a symbol of peace.
Machado, a member of the Venezuelan opposition who recruited millions of Venezuelans to reject President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s elections, said Friday won the Nobel Peace Prize For her efforts to “achieve a just and peaceful transition” of power in the South American country. The award also recognized the experienced politician as a “unifier” of a divided opposition party.
But the award comes amid opposition supporters questioning her leadership, including her support for US President Donald Trump’s Venezuela policy, which has seen Venezuelan migrants sent to notorious prisons in Central America and deadly US military attacks in the Caribbean.
Here’s what you need to know about Machado.
From engineer to politician
Machado, an industrial engineer and the daughter of a steel tycoon, began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization Sumate, which she co-founded, pushed for a referendum to remove then-president Hugo Chávez. The effort failed, and Machado and other Sumate executives were charged with conspiracy.
The following year, she angered Chavez and his allies by meeting with then-U.S. President George W. Bush in the Oval Office. Mr. Chavez considered Mr. Bush an enemy.
Her complete transformation as a politician would not occur until 2010, when she was elected to parliament with more votes than any previous aspirant. It was from this position that she boldly interrupted Mr. Chávez’s speech in Congress and called the expropriation of his business a theft.
“Eagles don’t hunt flies,” he answered. This exchange is seared into voters’ memories.
Aspirations as president
Machado, 58, first sought the Venezuelan president in 2012, but finished third in the Democratic Unity Roundtable presidential race.
The ruling National Assembly expelled Machado in 2014, and a few months later the Board of Audit banned him from public office for a year for failing to declare his assets. That same year, the government accused her of involvement in a plot to kill President Maduro, his successor after Chavez’s death in 2013.
Machado, a free-market agitator, has denied the charges, calling them an attempt to silence her and opposition politicians who have drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in anti-government protests that at times turned violent.
She kept a low profile for the next nine years, supporting some anti-Maduro movements and boycotting elections, and criticizing opposition efforts to negotiate with the government. By the time she announced a new run for president in 2023, her measured message had softened her image as an elitist hardliner and allowed her to connect with skeptics on both sides.
As the Nobel Prize Committee noted, she won the opposition presidential primary with more than 90% of the vote, unifying the factions. But she was forced to cede support to former diplomat Ejimdo Gonzalez after supporters of the ruling party that controls the country’s judiciary blocked her from appearing on the ballot.
She walked overpasses, walked highways, rode motorcycles, took shelter in supporters’ homes, and saw her closest allies. arrested She continued her campaign throughout Venezuela. She repeatedly joined thousands of supporters in chorus. “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” At the rally, people were encouraged to vote for González, a virtually unknown candidate who had never run for office.
brutal oppression
Mr. Gonzalez defeated Mr. Maduro by more than 2-1, according to voting machine records collected by the opposition and verified by international observers. Still, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, loyal to the ruling party, declared Maduro the winner of the July 28, 2024 election.
People protested this result all over the countryThe government responded in full force, arresting more than 2,000 people and accusing them of plotting to oust President Maduro and sow chaos. Most were released in the following months, but the government simultaneously arrested dozens of people last year who actively participated in Mr. Machado’s activities.
Some of Machado’s closest allies, including his campaign manager, escaped prison by taking shelter in a diplomatic residence in Caracas for more than a year, where they remained until fleeing to the United States in May.
Mr. González is in exile in Spain after being the subject of an arrest warrant, and Mr. Machado has not been seen in public since January, when he joined protesters at Mr. Maduro’s scheduled swearing-in ceremony. Her and González’s failure to prevent Maduro from being sworn in again led to a decline in approval ratings.
Since then, public trust has eroded, largely over Machado’s unquestioned support for Trump, including a major U.S. maritime deployment in the Caribbean that led to deadly attacks off the coast of Venezuela. This created new divisions within the opposition.
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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.
