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 more than two decades. In 2023, she won the opposition presidential 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. Machado went into hiding and was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful defense of democracy in Venezuela. Following the US capture of Maduro in January 2026 and Delcy Rodríguez’s assumption of interim power, Machado has led an international campaign pressing for free elections and a democratic transition.