María Corina Machado, the woman who revived hope for Venezuelans seeking change and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025

Despite these measures, Machado continued to be involved in politics until she eventually established herself as the undisputed leader of the Venezuelan opposition.

Between 2023 and 2024, he traveled from one end to the other across Venezuela twice, despite roads being closed, flights canceled and animal blood poured into his car.

As she walked through the crowded streets, dozens of people gave her rosaries, which she wears with her name, place and date and which she hangs around her neck. At the largest rallies, up to ten rosaries can be seen on his chest.

“With each one, I can remember why I do what I do and how many prayers encourage us to keep fighting,” said the opposition leader after the elections of July 28, 2024, in which Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner despite the opposition’s allegations of fraud, since the National Electoral Council never presented the detailed election results that a large part of the international community had demanded to legitimize his supposed victory.

Machado has managed to revive the buried hope of millions who want a change of government. He did this before the elections, despite the skepticism of many voters along the way, and he did it after the National Electoral Council (CNE) confirmed suspicions that Maduro would be declared the winner.

Less than an hour after this report from the CNE, the pro-government electoral body, Machado renewed the mood by announcing that his candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, had won the elections. And he had the evidence to prove it.

Machado, who began his political career in election observation organizations, this time joined an old opposition structure that has extensive knowledge of the automated electoral system that allows them to count the votes in parallel with those of the CNE using the official records of their witnesses.

In doing so, the opposition exposed the so-called “Maduro fraud” and led countries like the United States to declare González the winner in light of the “overwhelming evidence” presented.

“It took a long time to win, and it may also take time to get paid,” Machado reiterated in heartfelt voice messages to his militants. “So we have to resist,” he tells them, “and we have to stay close to the people and tell them that we will not abandon them, because we are going to the end.”

“Until the end” was her motto, which Machado made special, citing her role as a mother and grandmother a kind of people’s savior and leader of an opposition coalition which she viewed for years as “a thorn in the side” because of her positions against dialogue and coordination and in favor of international military intervention.

But Machado, as he told me in a November 2023 interview, has changed, just like millions of Venezuelans: “We have made a lot of mistakes, and when mistakes are made based on what you think is right, or because you don’t have all the information, or because you underestimated what to expect, you have to learn from them.”

“We discovered ourselves. We realized, ‘Hey, I’m capable of this.'”

María Corina Machado Parisca has three children and is the eldest of four sisters in a family led by a respected businessman in the metallurgical sector, whose companies were nationalized by Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor. His mother is a renowned psychologist and tennis player.

An industrial engineer specializing in finance, María Corina worked in several industrial companies until she joined organizations of Fight against poverty and election supervision.

From there he turned to the Republican Party in the United States, a country in which he lived and with which he has ties and political connections. Chavismo always saw her as a collaborator in the “imperialist coup.”

The first accusation against him involved illegally receiving money from American foundations, which earned him a three-year ban on leaving the country.

In 2010 she was elected as an independent member of the National Assembly with an anti-communist speech and in 2012 she lost the opposition presidential primary against Henrique Capriles.

Because of the disqualifications, Machado has been involved in politics outside the system over the past decade, promoting “Maduro’s departure” alongside Leopoldo López in 2014 and promoting protests in 2017 and 2019.

She was the first to describe the government as a “dictatorship”, rejected all attempts to negotiate with Chavismo, defended the use of force to remove Maduro and opposed the main opposition parties, which she accused of being “collaborators”.

This, coupled with her insistence on remaining in the country despite the threat of arrest and likely citing her family’s metallurgical tradition, earned her the nickname “the Iron Lady.”

As the leadership of Capriles, López and Juan Guaidó weakened, it appeared as the clearest ticket – the last of a generation – to counter Maduro.

Scholars often say that the Venezuelan people have a caudillo vocation. Starting with Simón Bolívar, there were many leaders with a personalistic and paternalistic style in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Although it dates back to earlier times, many see the main cause of this political culture as the discovery and subsequent nationalization of oil, a resource that gave rise to the idea of ​​a “magic state” that cared for every Venezuelan.

Hugo Chávez, in his own way and for his specific reasons, was the last representative of it.

Machado, who belonged to an ideologically opposite position and was a woman, proposed a new way to connect with people through the same political culture.

This was visible in the massive demonstrations she called for during the 2024 electoral process: people, men, women and children of all walks of life, shouting at her, hugging her, kissing her on the face and on the hand.

They called her “my love,” “my queen,” “take care, my girl.” They saw her as a daughter, a mother and a grandmother. They asked God for them.

They have affection and respect for him because he is “arrecha,” because he is “courageous and consistent.”

On January 13, 2012, President Hugo Chávez delivered his annual memorial and accountability speech to the National Assembly. In the series of interpellations, the encouraged voice of a 44-year-old opposition MP was heard.

“How can you say you respect the private sector when you are committed to expropriation, which means theft?” Maria Corina Machado asked him.

And Chávez, after a long silence and before the call of the ruling party, answered her: “I propose that you win the primaries, congressman, because you are not in the ranking to argue with me.”

After another silence, he finished, “Eagles don’t hunt flies, deputy.”

Twelve years later, Machado won the primary with 95% of the vote and the presidential election, in a formula with González Urrutia, with 70% of the vote, according to the official records he showed the world at the time.

And she was honored, according to the Norwegian committee, for “working for years for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.”

The fly then became the eagle: it is now the one in the hearts of the majority of Venezuelans.

*This story was originally published on August 3, 2024 and was updated following the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on October 10, 2025.

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