About the Speaker
María
Corina Machado
Venezuelan opposition leader
María Corina Machado is a Venezuelan opposition leader and national coordinator of Vente Venezuela. A longtime critic of both the Chávez and Maduro regimes, she has played a central role in the country’s pro-democracy movement for over two decades. In 2023, she won the opposition primary with over 90% of the vote. Although barred from running by the regime, she backed Edmundo González Urrutia as the unity candidate. The opposition won the 2024 presidential election by a wide margin, but Nicolás Maduro fraudulently claimed victory and responded with a new wave of repression against opposition figures and voters. In 2025, Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and unwavering defense of democracy and freedom in Venezuela.