María Corina Machado, a symbol of the political resistance in Venezuela and now Nobel winner

caracas (venezuela): maría corina machado has long been the face of resistance to venezuela's 26-year ruling party. now, she may become a symbol of peace, too.machado, the venezuelan opposition powerhouse who prompted millions of venezuelans to reject president nicolás maduro in last year's election, on friday was awarded the nobel peace prize for her work “to achieve a just and peaceful transition” of power in the south american country. the award also recognised the seasoned politician for being a “unifying figure” in the fractured opposition.the award, however, comes at a time when opposition supporters are questioning her leadership, including her embrace of us president donald trump's venezuela policy, which has seen venezuelan migrants sent to an infamous prison in central america and deadly us military strikes in the caribbean.sandra martínez, 32, called machado a “great woman” as she waited at a bus stop in caracas, but said she's not sure if the prize will have any effect on her country. “i don't know what can be done with that to improve the situation, but she deserves it," martínez said.engineer-turned-politicianmachado, an industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate, began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the non-governmental organisation she co-founded, súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-president hugo chávez. the initiative failed, and machado and other súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.she drew the anger of chávez and his allies the following year for her oval office meeting with then-u.s. president george w. bush. chávez considered bush an adversary.her full transformation into a politician came in 2010, when she was elected to the national assembly, receiving more votes than any aspiring lawmaker ever. it was from this position that she boldly interrupted chávez as he addressed the legislature and called his expropriation of businesses theft. “an eagle does not hunt a fly,” he responded — an exchange seared in voters' memories.presidential aspirationsmachado, 58, sought venezuela's presidency for the first time in 2012 but finished third in the primary race to be the presidential candidate for the democratic unity roundtable. the ruling party-controlled national assembly ousted her in 2014 and, months later, the comptroller general's office barred her from public office for a year, citing an alleged omission on her asset declaration form.that same year, the government accused her of plotting to kill maduro, who succeeded chávez after his 2013 death. machado, a free-market firebrand, denied the charge, calling it an attempt to silence her and other opposition members who had called 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 anti-maduro initiatives and election boycotts while criticising opposition efforts to negotiate with the government. by the time she announced a new bid for the presidency in 2023, her careful messaging had softened her image as an elitist hard-liner, allowing her to connect with sceptics on both sides.she won the opposition's presidential primary with more than 90 per cent of the vote, unifying the faction — as noted by the nobel prize committee. but ruling-party loyalists who control the country's judiciary kept her from appearing on the ballot, forcing her to throw her support behind former diplomat edmundo gonzález.she hiked overpasses, walked highways, rode motorcycles, sought shelter in supporters' homes and saw her closest collaborators arrested as she kept campaigning across venezuela. she repeatedly joined thousands of supporters chanting “freedom! freedom! freedom!” in rallies and urged them to vote for gonzález, a virtual unknown who had never run for office.brutal repressiongonzález crushed maduro by a more than two-to-one margin, according to voting machine records collected by the opposition and validated by international observers. still, venezuela's national electoral council, loyal to the ruling party, declared maduro the winner of the july 28, 2024 contest.people protested the results across the country, and the government responded with full force, arresting more than 2,000 people and accusing them of plotting to oust maduro and sow chaos. most were released over the following months, but the government simultaneously arrested dozens of people who actively participated in machado's efforts last year.some of machado's closest collaborators, including her campaign manager, avoided prison by sheltering for more than a year at a diplomatic compound in caracas, where they remained until may, when they fled to the us. gonzález went into exile in spain after he became the subject of an arrest warrant, and machado has not been seen in public since january, when she joined people protesting maduro's planned swearing-in ceremony.her and gonzález's inability to stop maduro from taking the oath of office again led to a decline in support. people's trust has eroded since then, primarily over machado's support for trump, including the large us maritime deployment in the caribbean that has carried out deadly strikes off the coast of venezuela.this has led to fresh divisions within the opposition, but she remains undeterred. “i believe that we are very close to achieving, finally, freedom for our country and peace for the region,” machado said in a call with the norwegian nobel institute, adding that “even though we face the most brutal violence, our society has resisted.”“i believe that the world will now understand how urgent it is to finally, you know, succeed," she said.