The last hope

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves to supporters from atop a vehicle during a campaign rally for the presidential elections in Mérida state, Venezuela, on June 25, 2024. In 2023, María Corina Machado won the opposition primary to face Nicolás Maduro in the presidential election. When the Supreme Court upheld her disqualification in January 2024, she endorsed former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia as the opposition candidate. Machado continued to lead her party in support of González’s campaign, using the roof of a vehicle as a stage as she toured rallies across the country. After the election, authorities declared Maduro the winner, but the opposition challenged the results, citing records that indicated a victory for González. Allegations of electoral irregularities led many countries to question the legitimacy of the process. Although Maduro remained in power and González was forced into exile, Machado, from hiding, remains the leader of the opposition and a key figure in the defense of political change in Venezuela.