Maria Corina Machado was never meant to win — and certainly not like this.
A banned candidate, a Nobel laureate, a woman hunted by a regime now brought down in fire and handcuffs. As Maduro sits in US custody, Caracas holds its breath.
In the stunned silence after Maduro’s capture and the US airstrikes that lit up Caracas, a different image began to define Venezuela: Maria Corina Machado, Nobel medal at her throat, raising clasped hands with Edmundo González. He is the man Washington and much of the world already recognize as the legitimate president; she is the woman Maduro’s courts tried to erase from the ballot, only to amplify onto the global stage. Together, they now face a country scarred by blackouts, exile, and fear.
A transitional government led by the two laureates would be less a coronation than a test. Can they fold chavistas back into civic life without vengeance? Can they tame hungry generals and desperate street movements at once? For millions of Venezuelans, hope has returned — but so has the terrifying possibility that, if they fail, the darkness will be worse than before.