How Venezuela’s opposition leader went from political fringe to center stage

Nearly three weeks after Venezuela’s hotly contested presidential vote, opposition leader María Corina Machado continues to lead the protest movement against President Nicolás Maduro and his government’s unsubstantiated claims of winning reelection.

Although she wasn’t the opposition’s presidential candidate (she was barred from running by the Supreme Court), Ms. Machado headlined the “Protest for the Truth” over the weekend, which brought thousands of Venezuelans and their supporters to the streets nationwide – and in places as far as Madagascar and Spain.

Ms. Machado is at the center of almost everything in Venezuela these days, not only hailed as the country’s political future, but also often characterized as a spiritual icon. It’s a striking contrast to the many years she was viewed as a radical, far-right politician, too extreme even for her own party coalition.

The once-fringe figure, who was nationally booed for proposing the privatization of Venezuela’s oil industry, has become a beacon of hope for Venezuelans yearning for change after more than a decade of economic and political struggles under Mr. Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian rule. And her rise may say more about Venezuela itself than about changes in her personal politics or approach.

“It is no longer about left or right,” says Eulice Villarroel, a former chavista, or supporter of the political and social movement launched by Mr. Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez.

Today, he says, this political moment has become a matter of “freedom and democracy [versus] dictatorship.”

“Our last chance”

Earlier this summer, in the final days leading up to the July 28 presidential vote, Ms. Machado organized a caravan that drove nearly 435 miles from the capital, Caracas, to Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo. Crowds gathered in remote villages along the route, waving flags and handmade posters, and vying for a chance to interact with the politician. In Maracaibo, supporters held up posters heralding mantras like “Losing your fear is called liberty.”

Many credit her for garnering the opposition’s widespread turnout and popular support during the election – even though her name wasn’t on the ballot – the results of which have pushed Venezuela’s strongman leader into a corner.

“She is our last chance,” says Aleida Osorio, who owns a beauty salon in an upscale Caracas neighborhood. “She’s a leader with principles ... willing to risk it all.”

Venezuela’s electoral authority, considered loyal to the president, has said Mr. Maduro won a third term with nearly 52% of the ballots. The opposition says its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, won 67% of the vote. The government is refusing to release paper tallies to verify the results, despite growing international pressure.

Before former President Chávez was elected in 1998, both rich and poor people here were disenchanted with the political elite. Mr. Chávez oozed charisma and won favor among the long-ignored poor population, feeding the country’s vast oil profits into social programing. When he died in 2013, already oil production – and global prices – were faltering. He was replaced by his handpicked successor, Mr. Maduro, who leaned into the growing economic hardship by cracking down on those questioning his leadership or the future of chavismo.

The opposition has tried seemingly everything to regain control of the country since the emergence of chavismo, but it has repeatedly failed to unite. Even when the opposition agreed on candidates to back, one after another fizzled. There have been disagreements on how to confront chavismo, and the opposition and its international allies have tried a wide range of approaches from imposing sanctions on the government to boycotting elections to setting up a parallel interim government.

Along the way, Ms. Machado was the butt of jokes from both the left and the right. Mr. Chávez belittled her in televised debates and his daily news conferences, referring to her as a “fly,” or a nuisance that could be easily swatted away. Even within the opposition, leaders mocked her.

Ms. Machado has proved many critics wrong, and not just in her staying power. She won the opposition’s primary elections in October with 92.5% of the vote. Venezuela experts say only Mr. Chávez was able to mobilize crowds like Ms. Machado now does.

What once seemed radical – she was one of the first to call chavismo a dictatorship and referred to the government’s expropriation of private land and businesses as “theft” – now has Venezuelans clamoring with approval.

“She hasn’t changed. She has always been the same. But we see her with different eyes now,” says Ms. Osorio, who has always supported the opposition but only recently started backing Ms. Machado. “What has changed are the [Venezuelan] people” who are fed up with corruption and perpetual crises.

Flexible – but firm

Ms. Machado has shifted her focus away from traditional left-right rhetoric, instead addressing core concerns that resonate deeply with Venezuelans: freedom, family reunification, and decent jobs for all.

This has helped her win over even former skeptics like Ibrahim Ruíz Castro, a driver in Caracas. Part of her appeal, he says, is that she is providing a realistic alternative to Mr. Maduro.

Ms. Machado’s adaptability is a hallmark of her campaign. “I believe one can and should be very flexible. In fact, I think we’ve demonstrated this with the strategy we’ve used to confront the regime in recent months because we’ve surprised them,” Ms. Machado told the Monitor in July, referring to how the opposition pivoted after she was barred from running for president, backing a new candidate in record time. “For that, you need to be agile, not predictable.”

“María Corina Machado has managed to unite people in a way that we have not seen the opposition united before,” says Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He points to her decades of preparation, courage to stand up to unprecedented government repression, and her charisma. “It’s just sheer personality; she’s ... a force of nature,” Dr. Berg says.

Ms. Machado has cultivated an almost religious presence in recent years. Many say they see her as their “savior” from the economic, political, and humanitarian challenges that have sent almost 8 million Venezuelans seeking refuge outside the country since 2014. She typically dresses in all white and adorns herself with handfuls of rosaries. Even with her name, María, she evokes biblical imagery. Last week, the Cuban exile community in Miami nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A number of the opposition’s campaign staff have been in hiding for months due to government threats and arrests. Despite threats from the government following the vote, Ms. Machado emerged from hiding on Aug. 17 to lead the opposition rally in Caracas. Mr. González remains in hiding.

As protests, counterprotests, and police crackdowns fuel political uncertainty right now, diplomatic efforts explore solutions to the electoral crisis with proposals like fresh elections or power-sharing agreements. Ms. Machado remains resolute that the opposition won – and should be in charge of moving the nation forward. She has rejected the idea of an electoral redo.

“I do believe that when it comes to ethics, one must be intransigent,” Ms. Machado says. “I think Venezuelans have become intransigent in that sense.”