Latin America has given seven Nobel Peace Prizes since the first award given to the Argentine Carlos Saavedra Lamas in 1936 for his mediation in the war between Paraguay and Bolivia. His compatriot also received it, Adolfo Pérez Esquivelin 1980, for indigestion of the military dictatorship. Then it was the turn of the Mexican diplomat Alfonso García Roblesthe president of Costa Rica Oscar Ariasthe Guatemalan social leader Rigoberta Menchú and the president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos. All designations were the subject of consensus and critical voices. Nothing will compare to award awarded to the Venezuelan María Corina Machado.
“I’m shocked”confessed the leader of Vente Venezuela, the right-wing space that has most vehemently confronted Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduroafter being for many years a marginal expression of the diverse opposition space in that country. “What is this pod? “I can’t believe it”, he told Edmundo González Urrutiathe former diplomat who anointed as a presidential candidate in the 2024 elections, when his figure had gone from the edges to the center of political action to displace the Government.
““This is an achievement for the entire society, I am just one person, I don’t deserve it.”he said, still under the impact of the information. Born on October 7, 1967, into a wealthy family, Machado gained the leadership of anti-maturism at the end of 2023 when she overwhelmingly won the elections. primaries of the opposition. Since then, he has put his personal stamp on the fight to displace Maduro. When she was removed from the electoral race in July 2024, she was González Urrutia’s support, to the point that it was used to be said in Caracas that, if she had reached the Government, the true power of the transition would have been in her hands, that of a engineer of informal dress and an iron will to travel her country as an agitator and organizer.
He vehemently led the electoral campaign and then the protests against the proclamation of victory at the polls of Nicolás Maduro without the National Electoral Council (CNE) will present the minutes. The effort to call Venezuelans to the streets wore out as the weeks went by. State repression was not unrelated to this withdrawal. But it was also Machado’s promises of imminent news of changes that ended up becoming another chapter of the unfulfilled prophecies that men and women tired of the Bolivarian era have known.
Key moment
“I think it’s going to take me a lot longer to believe what I just heard.”he said on Friday morning. His brilliant moment in 2002 is still remembered, which to a certain extent explains this present. had founded join in with the purpose of promoting a referendum to recall Chávez’s mandate. Over the years it gained prominence. He reached the National Assembly (AN, Congress). No one would remember her for her legislative work. In the memory of those who adore and despise her, among other reasons for promoting the armed intervention of the United States, the moment in which she argued with the Bolivarian in front of all the parliamentarians has been recorded. ““To expropriate is to steal.”he said when standing up to the president during his annual accountability in 2012 and calling into question the president’s economic diagnosis. Chávez drew a smile of political and intellectual superiority. “I suggest you win the primaries because you are out of the rankings to debate with me.” And he concluded: “Eagle does not catch flies”.
The phrase acquires another type of meaning at this time, especially for the most radical sector of a opposition that has once again exploded into pieces because it does not share a common strategy to confront Maduro. Machado, who is in what she calls a “clandestinity” but which, according to analysts, is a secret tolerated by the Miraflores Palace, had decisively supported Donald Trump and his policy against the Government, in particular the recent sinkings of boats in the southern Caribbean.
The Nobel Prize has had an immediate effect in a Venezuela that woke up early due to political developments. The figure of Machado has once again regained centrality, again due to an external event. The word “liberation” has once again circulated on social networks. The news had a strong impact on the Venezuelan exodus. Almost seven million people have left that country in the midst of a conflict that has gone through different critical points and was never able to be channeled positively.
A disorganized government
The Government has received the political impact of Machado’s appointment. The first evidence of his perplexity was offered by the official Telesur channel, where the news was not even published on the portal. Diosdado Hairthe number two of madurismo, has been the one who named her with the greatest disdain. “Mary with anger”I told him. Maduro, on the other hand, preferred the nickname “La Sayona ”a legend from Venezuelan folklore about an elegant woman who, in ghostly form, punished unfaithful men. He usually attributes all political and economic evils to him. The adjective “lacaya” was not lacking due to his positions so close to Washington.
“Until the end”, has been his watchword in recent years. The Nobel in his hands, obtained, according to the Committee, “for his tireless work in promoting democratic rights”, reflects a new beginning that does not occur in any scenario. “Very well-deserved recognition of the long struggle of a woman and an entire people for our freedom and democracy,” said González Urrutia, who is in the exile. “A recognition of all their efforts of organization, promotion, and perseverance so that millions of Venezuelans in the worst conditions could express themselves democratically in the 2024 presidential elections. In defending sacred popular sovereignty“, said Henrique Capriles, the former presidential candidate who has had his friction with Machado, especially in recent weeks marked by the crisis between Venezuela and the United States.
The Miraflores Palace will not delay in disqualifying the news coming from Oslo. The question of these hours had to do with the authorization for Machado to travel to Norway on December 10 to seek the distinction that coincided with a request from Caracas to convene an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in the event of “armed attack” could carry out Washington”in a very short term”.
Subscribe to continue reading
