CARACAS, Venezuela, July 27, (AP): Maria Corina Machado has hiked overpasses, walked highways, ridden motorcycles, sought shelter in supporters' homes and seen her closest collaborators detained and persecuted. She has held the calloused hands of crying men, worn dozens of gifted rosaries and listened to the pleas of the young and old while crisscrossing Venezuela.
The ruling party has blocked Machado from running in Sunday's hotly contested presidential election, but fueled by that ban, she has become the driving force for the main opposition coalition and a symbol of hope, courage and perseverance for millions of Venezuelans. Machado, once a political outcast, is their freedom fighter and the main threat to President Nicolás Maduro’s reelection aspirations.
Supporters scream "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” as she arrives at rallies and while she speaks, some overwhelmed to the point of tears. The thousands-strong crowds include opponents of the self-professed socialist revolution that Maduro’s predecessor began at the turn of the century, as well as voters who supported those ideals but abandoned them because of Venezuela's ongoing crisis.
Such is her power to commandeer millions of votes, that the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela has taken to intimidating Machado and her supporters. The government has arrested collaborators and closed businesses associated with her, from a hotel where she stayed during a campaign stop to women that sold empanadas to her from their homes. Her campaign manager has sheltered at an embassy in the capital, Caracas, for months.
And all this when the name Machado, her face and party do not appear on the ballot, while Maduro shows up 13 times.
Machado was cemented as leader of the Unitary Platform coalition - the main opposition faction - in October, when she won the presidential primary with more than 90% of the vote.
But Machado’s road to leadership has been long and winding. Just months before the primary, even some opposition members considered the free-market firebrand a radical because of her unwillingness to negotiate with Maduro’s government and her harsh criticism of those who did. As recently as 2021, she urged voters to boycott elections, arguing that their participation in an uneven playing field implicitly legitimized the ruling party.