Friday 10 / October / 2025
María Corina Machado Parisca (born 7 October 1967) is a Venezuelan politician and industrial engineer who is currently opposition leader in Venezuela. She served as an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014. Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize 2025.
Machado entered politics in 2002 as the founder and leader of the vote-monitoring group Súmate,[2] alongside Alejandro Plaz.[3][4] She is the National Coordinator of political party, Vente Venezuela. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[5][6] In 2025, Time magazine listed her as one of the world's 100 most influential people.[7] Machado is regarded as a leading figure of the Venezuelan opposition; the Nicolás Maduro government in Venezuela has banned Machado from leaving Venezuela.[6]
Machado was a candidate in the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election but lost the opposition primary to Henrique Capriles. During the 2014 Venezuelan protests, Machado was one of the lead figures in organizing protests against the government of Nicolás Maduro.[8] In 2019, amid the Venezuelan presidential crisis, she announced that she would launch a second presidential run if disputed interim President Juan Guaidó successfully called for an election; Guaidó was ultimately unsuccessful in his efforts.[9]
She was a precandidate for Vente Venezuela in the primary elections of the Unitary Platform of 2023, although on 30 June 2023 she was disqualified for fifteen years by the Comptroller General of Venezuela.[10] Her disqualification was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela in January 2024.[11] After winning the primary elections, Machado was declared the opposition candidate for the 2024 presidential elections,[12] though she was replaced by Corina Yoris on 22 March 2024. Yoris was prevented from registering as a candidate and was temporarily replaced by Edmundo González Urrutia.
On 1 August 2024, Machado published a letter in The Wall Street Journal, stating that she had gone in to hiding "fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro".[13][14]
