What to know about Venezuela’s new opposition leader  

What to know about Venezuela’s new opposition leader  

María Corina Machado is the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. She has a background in engineering and public administration, but has been involved in politics for two decades.  

Ideologically, Machado supports the liberal doctrine. She plans to reduce the involvement of the State in public policies and believes in the free market’s ability to create wealth and employment (Santaeulalia, 2023). She supports the separation between the State and the Church, and the decriminalization of abortion, the use of Marijuana, and gay marriage (Ibid.). Concerning foreign policies, she wants Venezuela to partake in numerous multilateral organizations (Ibid.). Internally, she wants to build a more self-sufficient country where the petro-state and oil industries impact significantly less the population’s daily lives (Ibid.). She is both against Chavez and Maduro, and refused to join political endeavors with them as it would represent a means to legitimize the regime (Ibid.). She founded Vente Venezuela, a political party dissolving the dichotomy of “left” and “right” (Vente Venezuela, 2014). In the early days, her proposals appealed to Venezuelan emigrants and members of the upper classes, but, in recent years, people from different economic backgrounds have attended her rallies, including traditional pro-chauvinism groups as the disillusion with the government seeped horizontally and vertically into the population (Santaeulalia, 2023).  

Machado’s first role was in 2010 when she was elected as the State of Miranda’s representative (Financial Times, 2018). Two years later, she came third in the election to lead the opposition. In 2014, she was removed from the position for, allegedly, violating two articles of the Constitution, after accepting the “substitute ambassador role” at the Organization of American States, OAS (Venezuela opposition congresswoman’s mandate revoked, 2014). According to international newspapers, pro-Maduro representatives, who had the majority of the national assembly, made such claims. In the same year, she appeared on the global political stage for her role during the protests called La Salita, where demonstrators were attacked with tear gas and 43 people were killed (El Pais, 2024). Machado joined the riots in support of Leopoldo Lopez, a politician who got arrested and charged with military crimes. She spoke against the Madurian government and invited the Venezuelan people to engage in nonviolent disobedience (Gelvis, 2016). Moreover, she highlighted how the Madurian regime employed police and state violence- torture, abuse, and killings- against civilians who joined manifestations (Ibid.).  Her early years were characterized by fighting for political transparency and she founded Súmate, a vote-motoring NGO association (Georgetown Americas Institute, 2024). It aims to defend and protect citizens’ rights as established in the country’s Constitution, and it promotes democratic participation (Ibid.). In 2004, the organization played an essential role in organizing the recall referendum against Chavez (Ibid.).  

From 2014 to 2021, she took a break from governmental roles and worked as a broadcaster and political commentator (Murolo, 2014). In 2022, she affirmed her intention to participate in the presidential primaries.  She spoke in favour of manual voting and against the technical assistance of the National Electoral Council (Redacción Runrun.es, 2023). Her political run was characterized by tension with the government when the latter disqualified Machado from political enterprises for 15 years for allegedly approval of sanctions during the Venezuelan crises and support of  Juan Guaidó’s crimes (Rodríguez, 2023). Machado received international support. The ban was approved in January 2024, three months after winning the primaries (Le Monde, 2024). Edmundo Urrutia became her replacement.  

Machado continues to be de facto the leader of the opposition, as her support for Urrutia is essential to maintaining the majority of the pools.  

The presidential election took place in July 2024 and both the factions claimed to have won. Maduro and his party got 51% of the votes; however, international bodies and the opposition criticized the CNE for its lack of transparency (Pozzebon, 2024). Machado stated that Urrutia received 70% of the votes (Machado, 2024). She, also, spoke out against Maduro’s attempts to maintain authority over the country which passed through unfair political moves (Ibid.). Machado was forced to quit the presidential run and several opposition team members were forced to live in the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas (Ibid.). Machado attacked Maduro for electoral fraud as he claimed the win but lost in all 24 states. Despite the hoax, the Venezuelan Court announced Maduro as the country’s next president at the end of August (Il mandato di arresto contro Edmundo González Urrutia, 2024), and political opponents were forced to flee the country and hide. Urrutia asked Spain for protection (Barbarena, 2024); Machado was forced to hide (Machado, 2024).  

 

REFERENCES 

 Barberena, R. C. (2024, December 12). España anunció la concesión de asilo al opositor venezolano Edmundo González. France 24; FRANCE 24. https://www.france24.com/es/am%C3%A9rica-latina/20241220-espa%C3%B1a-anunci%C3%B3-la-concesi%C3%B3n-de-asilo-al-opositor-venezolano-edmundo-gonz%C3%A1lez 

 EL PAÍS. (2024). VENEZUELA | ¿Quién es María Corina Machado? | EL PAÍS. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJZ5LCXHsSw 

Financial Times Times. (2018). Venezuela’s opposition claims majority. 

 https://www.ft.com/content/064cc06a-cb30-11df-95c0-00144feab49a 

 Le Monde. (2024, January 27). Venezuela’s Supreme Court disqualifies opposition leader from running for president. Le Monde.fr; Le Monde. 

 Gelvis, R. L. (2016, May 31). María Corina Machado: En Venezuela se vive bajo una dictadura militarista.https://web.archive.org/web/20170406110425/http://www.panorama.com.ve/politicayeconomia/Maria-Corina-Machado-En-Venezuela-se-vive-bajo-una-dictadura-militarista–20160531-0115.html 

 Machado, M. C. (2024, August 1). I Can Prove Maduro Got Trounced. WSJ; The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-can-prove-maduro-got-trounced-venezuela-election-stolen-772d66a0 

 Murolo,l. (2014, September 22). María Corina Machado estará “Contigo” todos los martes en RCR 750 AM. La Region.  

Santaeulalia, I. (2023, October 1). María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan Margaret Thatcher.El PAÍS English. https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-10-01/maria-corina-machado-the-venezuelan-margaret-thatcher.html 

 Il mandato di arresto contro Edmundo González Urrutia. (2024, September 3). Il Post. https://www.ilpost.it/2024/09/03/venezuela-mandato-arresto-edmundo-gonzalez/ 

 Pozzebon, J. Y., Tara John, Stefano. (2024, July 29). Both Venezuela strongman Nicolas Maduro and opposition claim election win, as US voices “serious concern.” CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/29/americas/venezuela-election-maduro-winner-intl-hnk/index.html 

 Rodríguez, R. (2023, June 30). Contraloría inhabilita a María Corina Machado por 15 años, dice José Brito. Efecto Cocuyo. https://efectococuyo.com/politica/contraloria-inhabilita-a-maria-corina-machado-por-15-anos-dice-jose-brito/ 

 Redacción Runrun.es. (2023). María Corina Machado insiste en primarias sin CNE: “La gente no es pendeja.” Runrun.es: En Defensa de Tus Derechos Humanos; Runrunes. https://runrun.es/noticias/495043/maria-corina-machado-insiste-en-primarias-sin-cne-la-gente-no-es-pendeja/ 

Venezuela opposition congresswoman’s mandate revoked. (2014, March 25). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26726282 

 Vente Venezuela. (2014). https://www.ventevenezuela.org/nuestros-ideales-2/