For years, María Corina Machado was the perfect opponent of Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian revolution. The former Venezuelan president, daughter of an important metallurgist, positioned her as his antithesis: “A bourgeoisie with a beautiful exterior,” an instrument of American imperialism. And she, for her part, has not given up her frontal opposition to the “regime” that, she said, would lead Venezuela to become Cuba. He had loyal followers, but they did not go beyond the traditional elite niche. Twenty years later, the conservative politician has become the opposition leader who keeps her awake at night to President Nicolás MaduroShe is more moderate and conciliatory and a mass mobilizer who threatens to put an end to 25 years of Chavismo.
Without a disqualification by the comptroller general – according to the official line – and confirmed by the Supreme Court in January, Machado would be on the ballot for next Sunday’s presidential election. In October 2023, he had obtained 92.5% of the vote in the opposition primaries. His exclusion from the election was at best a severe personal and political blow. Against all odds, however, he managed to transfer his votes to Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiaan unknown diplomat until a few months ago. Together they have traveled through Venezuela and claim to be sure that they will win. After so many defeats, she assures that they have never had so much support before the elections. In the meantime, he recognizes Machado's leadership and promises him “the position he wants” in his eventual government.
A few years ago, few would have thought that Machado would lead a united opposition and that would bring her so close to victory. In 2012, he only obtained 3.81% of the vote against Henrique Capriles (64.3%) in the opposition primaries. Later, his radical positions to force Maduro out with mass mobilizations or “the use of force” did not help him. It was relegated to a secondary place. Until two years ago, when its popularity suddenly took off. The attempt to establish a parallel government in the hands of… Juan Guaidoan ‘interim president’ appointed by the National Assembly – elected in 2015 and with an opposition majority. She had remained on the sidelines and, faced with the fatigue of the rest of the opposition, she strengthened herself as an alternative.
Analyst Maryhen Jiménez, a researcher at the University of Oxford, explains that the fall of the interim government, the lack of opposition responses to society and a critical stance from Machado allowed him to run a different campaign this time. “We must not forget that during the opposition primaries, María Corina put a central issue on the table: Venezuelan migration [cercana a los 7,5 millones]“No other politician made this part of her campaign, but she did, and this allows her to connect with Venezuelan society in a different way,” she tells EL PAÍS.
For political scientist and vice-president of the Primero Justicia party Paola Bautista, the leader has managed to build a unity that transcends the political parties and that has broad popular support. “It is a different unity than the one we had in previous processes. Previously, in previous electoral processes, the centre of unity was the parties. That unity was eroded when political formations entered into a crisis of representation. Unity now transcends; that is to say, the parties are involved, but it is the great mobiliser and articulator,” she explains.
The years of confrontation
The opposition leader began her political career as a co-founder of the NGO Súmate. The organization stated that its goal was to ensure electoral transparency, but it quickly became an opposition stronghold. Machado was then seen as a radical, and it did not help that she had been present in the presidential palace in Miraflores during the failed civil-military coup of 2002 – although she later denied having supported it. Likewise, the leader has never renounced her ties to the United States. In 2005, a photo in the White House with President George Bush was circulated around the country, drawing all sorts of support and rejection. Since then, she has presented herself as the representative of US imperialism for the Chavistas. as a possible presidential candidate for some sectors of the opposition.
Chávez and Machado had a confrontation in 2012 that has remained etched in the country’s memory. During the president’s last speech to the National Assembly – he died the following year – she stopped to confront him. He told him that “decent Venezuela” did not want to move toward “communism”: “How can you say you respect the private sector in Venezuela when it is dedicated to expropriation, which is stealing.” He, for his part, listened to her until the end and then responded sarcastically, amid cheers from his followers: “There is no question of it.” arrangement to debate me. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. But that's the truth. You even called me a thief in front of the country, but I'm not going to insult you. 'The Eagle doesn't chase flies, Deputy.'
The confrontation intensified after Nicolás Maduro's victory in the 2013 presidential election, which was branded fraudulent by the opposition. A sector of the oppositioncalled La Salida and led by Machado together with Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, lost hope of coming to power through elections and began promoting mass mobilizations to demand the president's resignation. Between February and May 2014, the country was paralyzed by student protests. The government responded with brutal repression, and 44 people were killed. Machado, who remained the undisputed leader of La Salida after López's arrest, opposed attempts by other sectors of the opposition to enter into dialogue with the executive power. He argued that these initiatives only served to buy time for Chavismo and demobilize the protests.
That year marked the beginning of the political persecution against Marchado. Chavismo expelled her from the Assembly on the excuse that Panama had appointed her as a “substitute ambassador” to the OAS – a maneuver so that she could participate in a debate on Venezuela – and that this was incompatible with her parliamentary duties. Later, the justice system banned him from leaving the country, knowing that one of his main activities was to denounce state abuses in the United States and Europe. Chavismo also accused her of conspiracy to kill Maduro. Finally, in 2015, The Comptroller's Office disqualified her for twelve months and prevented her from being elected as a representative in the elections that year.
The radicalization continued on both sides. In 2017, Chavismo formed a Constituent Assembly to bypass the opposition-held Parliament. Machado, in turn, split from the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). She was critical of the opposition leaders’ dialogue and the decision to participate in the 2018 regional elections. For her, the elections had become “an illusion and a deception.” “You don’t get real power and you give up moral authority [frente a Venezuela]”, he told this newspaper at the time. Over the years he lost prominence but remained steadfast in his intransigence. In 2019 he caused a stir by defending an interview with the BBC a foreign intervention in Venezuela. “A criminal regime will only be removed from power if there is a credible, imminent and serious threat of the use of force,” he declared.
The change of strategy
The opposition leader, also called Venezuela's “Iron Lady,” changed her maneuver from “confrontation” to strategic moderation, says political scientist Jiménez. “Until last year, Machado's strategy was to not recognize the government. For years, he prioritized other mechanisms and routes to a change in the political regime. But in 2023, she knew how to read the context, she left her traditional niche of the opposition to become a leader with the ability to reach multiple groups.”
When the former deputy was not allowed to run in the presidential elections, she gave her support to a hitherto unknown university professor in the political environment, Corina Yoris, so that she would confront Maduro in her place. The strategy was not successful because of Chavismo also prevented the registration of the academic's candidacy by a disqualification from the control office.
Yoris excluded from the election campaign, the support He addressed former diplomat Gonzálezwhich has managed to reach the final stage of the elections and, according to studies by Delphos and ORC Consultores, is well ahead of Maduro. “María Corina continues to campaign. She is becoming the great mobilizer of Venezuelan society in this presidential race in an unusual context, because a leader was chosen during the primaries, but she cannot be the candidate,” says Jiménez.
“Facing the unknown”
According to Bautista, this leadership, unlike other opponents, has been built over twenty years through “resilience and cohesion”: “She was involved in the great democratizing events of the country. He was never concerned about getting along with the regime, but rather about empathy with Venezuelans. In Venezuela, we know that the fight against a dictatorship goes hand in hand with the unknown, but she has strong convictions and works as a team.”
In the midst of the electoral campaign, the arrests of people who in one way or another provided support or services during the tours of González and Machado have intensified, to the point that the NGO Foro Penal counts more than a hundred of them, the majority in the last month. A few days ago, the former deputy reported the destruction of cars used by her and her team in the city of Barquisimeto, in the state of Lara (western Venezuela), on July 18. “They cut the brake hose, which is clearly an attack on the lives of those of us who use these vehicles,” said the opponent. The version of the attack was rejected by Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who declared it a “false positive.”
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