María Corina Machado Parisca (born 7 October 1967) is a Venezuelan politician and industrial engineer who is currently opposition leader in Venezuela.

On 1 August 2024, Machado published a letter in The Wall Street Journal, stating that she had gone in to hiding "fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro".

[13][2][14] Her ancestors included Eduardo Blanco, the author of the 1881 classic Venezuela Heroica and a relative who was killed in an uprising against Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez.

[16] The founding of Venezuelan volunteer civil organization Súmate resulted from a hurried encounter between Machado and Alejandro Plaz in a hotel lobby in 2001, where they shared their concern about the course that was being shaped for Venezuela.

I had this unsettling feeling that I could not stay at home and watch the country get polarized and collapse ... We had to keep the electoral process but change the course, to give Venezuelans the chance to count ourselves, to dissipate tensions before they built up.

[18] After the referendum, members of Súmate were charged with treason and conspiracy, under Article 132 of the Venezuelan Penal Code,[19] for receiving financial support for their activities from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

[16] That same year, The New York Times said she was "the Venezuelan government's most detested adversary, a young woman with a quick wit and machine-gun-fast delivery who often appears in Washington or Madrid to denounce what she calls the erosion of democracy under President Hugo Chávez", and stated the Venezuelan government considers her "a member of a corrupt elite that is doing the bidding of the much reviled Bush administration".

[20] The criminal charges triggered condemnation from Human Rights Watch and democracy groups,[21][22] the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela,[23] and a coalition of world leaders.

"[14] Machado and Plaz were invited to meet with National Assembly legislators in August 2006 for an investigation about Súmate's funding but were denied access to the hearing, although they say they received two letters requesting their presence.

[3] The Los Angeles Times said that her name was raised as a potential candidate,[29] and Michael Shifter stated that she was a future presidential contender "who can effectively communicate a vision for a post-Chávez Venezuela that can appeal to enough Chávez supporters".

[38] She campaigned actively in "slums once viewed as solid pro-Chávez territory", attempting to "capitalize on domestic problems, including widespread violent crime, power outages in some regions, a severe housing shortage and 30-percent inflation".

[39] Machado complained that MUD candidates faced "what she called a government-orchestrated propaganda machine that churns out spots ridiculing Chávez's critics, runs talk shows dominated by ruling party hopefuls and picks up all of the president's speeches",[39] and that she had to campaign with less funds as she "struggled to convince supporters and business leaders to contribute to her campaign because they fear reprisals by the government and Chávez-friendly prosecutors".

[41] According to a reporter for the Associated Press, Venezuela's electoral council "has for years ignored laws that bar the president and other elected officials from actively campaigning for candidates.

Chavez ... has threatened legal action against Vicente Diaz, the lone member of the electoral council who has criticized his heavy use of state media ahead of the vote.

"[41] When the state-run television channel interviewed Machado, they ran images of her Oval Office meeting in 2005 with George W. Bush, described by an Associated Press reporter as "Chavez's longtime nemesis".

[53][54] In June 2014, Venezuela's attorney general Luisa Ortega Díaz subpoenaed Machado along with Burelli, Diego Arria, and Ricardo Koesling.

[45][61] Machado and others stated that the accusations were false and were created by the Venezuelan government to deflect attention from Venezuela's economic problems and polls showing Maduro's approval rating at a record low of 30%.

[62][63][64] On 1 February 2019, Machado announced her intent to run for president if Juan Guaidó calls elections, owing to the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis.

[67] In an interview discussing the election, Machado insisted that she was not interested in the opposition primary and said that "my goal is to get Maduro out and be able to defeat the regime using all the force.

[73] During her pre-campaign, Machado maintained criticism towards the traditional opposition leadership, mainly the Democratic Action, Justice First, A New Era, and Popular Will parties.

[88] The newspaper also compared the massive popular movement around Machado, with the rise of Hugo Chávez to the presidency in 1998, in terms of the "fervor" it generates in citizens, both in a context of political crisis and decadence of the system.

[90][91] The New York Times, referring to Machado, described her as "an energetic former legislator whose central message is the promise of bringing Venezuelans home by restoring democracy and getting the economy going again".

[93] On 1 August, Machado published a letter in The Wall Street Journal, stating that she had gone in to hiding "fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro"; in the letter, she laid out the evidence she said she had from the vote tallies supporting PUD's win, and stated that Maduro had expelled witnesses from the polls, while the witnesses "protected the voter receipts with their lives throughout the night" of the elections.

[69][101] Machado has supported the international sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis,[69] and has advocated for foreign intervention to remove Maduro on humanitarian grounds.

[114][115] On 30 April 2013, cameras covering the National Assembly were turned to the ceiling and opposition members stated they were attacked and assaulted [es] in an "ambush by supporters of President Nicolas Maduro's government".

[121] After leading protests in Bolivar state on 14 March 2014, Machado, the Bishop of Ciudad Guayana, Mariano Parra, and other citizens in the area were attacked at the Puerto Ordaz airport.

... 'Each of the 2009 Yale World Fellows has demonstrated an outstanding record of accomplishment and unlimited potential for future success,' said Program Director Michael Cappello."

The Yale World Fellows Program press release said: Machado devotes herself to defending democratic institutions and civil liberties through SUMATE, the nation's leading watchdog for electoral transparency.

[135][136] Machado was chosen in 2009 out of more than 900 applicants as one of 15 accepted to the Yale World Fellows program,[137] described as someone who "devotes herself to defending democratic institutions and civil liberties".

[139][140] Legislators from the US state of Florida Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart submitted a letter in support of the nomination on 26 August, stating that her "courageous and selfless leadership, and unyielding dedication to the pursuit of peace and democratic ideals" have been "instrumental in mobilizing both domestic and international support for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing electoral fraud crisis" along with her advocacy to "bring attention to the human rights abuses occurring under the current regime embody the very principles that the Nobel Peace Prize seeks to honor.