Venezuela’s hope returns

Venezuela’s most pop­u­lar op­po­si­tion leader, No­bel lau­re­ate María Co­ri­na Macha­do, re­turned home via neigh­bour­ing Colom­bia af­ter near­ly a year in ex­ile. As she head­ed to Cara­cas, cel­e­bra­tions erupt­ed in homes and pub­lic places around the coun­try. One re­port said, “Peo­ple crammed on­to over­pass­es and high­ways hop­ing to catch a glimpse of her while a sea of phone cam­eras flashed in the night”. Coro­mo­to Lu­go, a teacher, is “very hap­py. We have want­ed this for months,” she said. “A democ­ra­cy built by Venezue­lans is fi­nal­ly com­ing.” A moth­er told CNN, “It is tru­ly a source of hope for me. Just as María Co­ri­na re­turned to Venezuela, my chil­dren will re­turn home too.”

Ms Macha­do, an in­dus­tri­al en­gi­neer with a mas­ter’s de­gree in fi­nance, was a for­mer mem­ber of Venezuela’s Leg­is­la­ture. She has led the op­po­si­tion for the past three years, liv­ing in hid­ing in­side her coun­try, try­ing to avoid ar­rest. And pre­serve her life. She left Venezuela se­cret­ly in 2025 for Oslo to re­ceive the No­bel Peace Prize. Em­ploy­ing dis­guise, she crossed ten check­points by car to reach the coast and then, at 5 am, took a “typ­i­cal wood­en fish­ing skiff” to Cu­ra­cao through rough seas. She ar­rived in Oslo on De­cem­ber 11, one day af­ter the for­mal award cer­e­mo­ny, which her daugh­ter had at­tend­ed to re­ceive the prize on her be­half.

The No­bel Com­mit­tee high­light­ed Macha­do’s po­lit­i­cal ca­reer. In 2002, she found­ed the elec­tion-mon­i­tor­ing group Su­mate and lat­er the Vente Venezue­lan Par­ty which for over 20 years has cho­sen “bal­lots over bul­lets” to ad­vance its cause. Macha­do uni­fied a frac­tured op­po­si­tion around de­mands for free elec­tions and rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment.