Dissident Spotlight: María Corina Machado
Maria Corina Machado was the leader of Venezuela's opposition before going into hiding after threats to her life.

For over a decade, Maria Corina Machado has been one of Venezuela’s leading opposition leaders. She served in Venezuela’s National Assembly from 2011 to 2014 and continued to run for office as a member of the opposition.
Machado runs in opposition to Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator. Maduro assumed the presidency after Hugo Chavez died in 2013. Since then, Maduro has expanded his presidential power and eroded the courts’ independence, limited press and political freedoms, and all Venezuelans’ quality of life.
Among Maduro’s greatest policy failures is Venezuela’s hunger crisis. Maduro’s policies have led to decreased salaries and increased food costs from greater reliance on food imports. He has also used the government to purchase food at a higher price, pocketed the price difference, and caused widespread hunger. A report found that 45% of Venezuelans had to “go without food because of increased food insecurity” in 2023.
Maduro’s corruption and mismanagement make a competent opposition leader all the more important for Venezuela’s future.
Machado’s Opposition
A year after Maduro became Venezuela’s president, Machado became one of the most prominent voices who spoke in opposition to him. She ran in the opposition primary in 2019 and 2023.
In 2023, the danger against her became more severe. She won her primary running on the Unitary Platform, but the Comptroller General, long since captured by Maduro, disqualified her from holding public office for 15 years. Machado went on to become the oppoistion candidate for the 2024 presidential race, but was still forced to be replaced by Corina Yoris, who herself was replaced by Edmundo González.
On July 28, 2024, González won the election, but Maduro hasn’t accepted the results. Election workers released voting machine totals which proved González’ victory. But Madruo’s crackdown has led to prominent activists going missing and violence against opposition leaders.
Since the election, Machado has gone into hiding. Her interviews with foreign media outlets have taken place from undisclosed locations. Even against the might of a corrupt state, Machado is leading the fight against Maduro’s dictatorship.
Using the State for Theft
Maduro’s style of dictatorship is a common pattern of modern dictatorship. He uses the state to steal money and enrich himself and his inner circle. It’s a story that can be told in other countries like Russia, Iran, and China.
All of these countries also work together to resist entreaties from the democratic world to operate fairly. Venezuela’s largest trading partner in exports and imports was China in 2022, the most advanced autocratic country. China is increasingly supporting authoritarians around the globe to create a separate world economy from democratic countries, which would reduce the impact of democratic sanctions.
(Anne Applebaum’s book Autocracy, Inc. covers this pattern in detail.)
If she took power, Machado would not only have to end the corruption that Maduro has fostered and change her country’s economic policies. She has to do a certain amount of state building to create a government that can deliver services to its people instead of terrorize and starve them. It’s a sobering task that the democratic world must unite in supporting.
The world’s autocracies are working together. The world’s democracies should be at least as coordinated in response.