María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize has made her the face of the struggle for democracy in Venezuela. But throughout the opposition, women are the backbone of the fight against Nicolás Maduro’s corrupt authoritarian regime.
October 2025
On the morning of 10 October 2025, the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, placed a call to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, in hiding somewhere in Venezuela. When Machado answered, Harpviken introduced himself and, visibly moved, said, “I am calling you to inform you that in a few minutes it shall be announced here at the Nobel Institute that you will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 2025.”
Machado responded in astonishment, “Oh my God! Oh my God.” She went on to say, “I thank you so much, but I hope you understand this is a movement. This is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person . . . I certainly do not deserve this.”
In her official statement upon receiving the prize, Machado continued to emphasize the collective dimension of the recognition: “I receive this prize on behalf of the people of Venezuela, who have fought for their freedom with admirable courage, dignity, intelligence, and love,” adding “We have built a formidable civic movement, overcoming the barriers the regime created to divide us, and we have united the nation around a powerful aspiration: peace in freedom.”
Women and Power in Venezuela
Venezuela declared its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1811. It was more than a century later, in 1945, before democracy first came to the country. That initial attempt was short-lived: After just three years, a coup ushered in a decade of military rule. But democracy returned in 1958, giving rise to a relatively stable political system that would endure for four decades. Then, in 1998, Hugo Chávez rose to power, and the course of Venezuelan history changed once again.
This brief overview of Venezuela’s political history underscores a striking reality: The country has never been led by a woman. For 214 years of republican life, Venezuela’s path had always been determined by men. This historical and cultural reality fostered a masculine configuration of power, shaping behavioral norms and leaving deep marks on political and social dynamics. As in many other countries in Latin America, Venezuela bears traces of misogyny that have historically hindered women’s participation in the corridors of power.
Undoubtedly, the democratic era inaugurated in 1958 created conditions that partially overcame these obstacles. During that period, outstanding women participated in public life and contributed significantly to the country’s development: women governors, mayors, members of parliament, and ministers — trailblazers who opened paths for new generations.
The rise of the Chavista-Madurista regime, however, has undone many of the gains that women achieved under twentieth-century democracy. Under Nicolás Maduro, in particular, women have suffered structural, repressive, and institutional violence. The dictator’s reaction to Machado receiving the Nobel Prize exemplifies this decline: He denounced her as “the demonic witch of the Sayona” and claimed that “90 percent of the population rejects her.”
According to El Libro Violeta de la represión en Venezuela (The Violet Book of Repression in Venezuela), the rate of teenage pregnancy in Venezuela “doubles the regional average, reaching 97.7 per 1,000 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 19.” Women are also struggling just to make ends meet: “75 percent of women earn less than USD 200 per month, and only 3 percent can afford the basic family food basket.” And between January and September 2024 alone, 127 women were murdered in Venezuela.
Women have likewise suffered from state repression. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela dedicated a section of its September 2025 report to “sexual and gender-based violence,” which documents forms of sexual abuse “directed particularly against women, girls, and adolescents.” Following the electoral victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia in Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential vote, the UN Mission recorded 2,220 detentions including 218 children, which undoubtedly included women and girls, and incidents of “sexual extortion against women, who were offered freedom or better detention conditions in exchange for sexual favors.” The Mission further received “testimonies and information from victims, relatives, witnesses, and organizations concerning, inter alia, coercive transactional sex, invasive searches involving forced nudity, reproductive violence, and possible acts of sexual slavery or forced prostitution.”
No official statistics exist on female political prisoners in Venezuela. According to Foro Penal, an NGO that records political prisoners in Venezuela, 101 women are currently incarcerated, including Dignora Hernández, a member of the national board of Vente Venezuela; Rocío San Miguel, director of the NGO Control Ciudadano; and María Oropeza and Catalina Ramos, both members of Vente Venezuela.
Beyond the visible forces of structural inequality and repression, Venezuelan women have suffered another, more insidious form of violence: institutional. Under Maduro, the very organs of the state have been weaponized to strip citizens of their political rights, with the prominent women who lead the democratic struggle bearing the brunt of this systematic assault.
Several notable cases highlight this pattern. In January 2024, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice barred María Corina Machado from participating in the presidential election. Soon after, it also blocked the candidacy of Corina Yoris, who had been unanimously selected by opposition forces to step in as Machado’s replacement. These disqualifications join those of María Beatriz Martínez, president of Primero Justicia; Adriana Pichardo, political coordinator of Voluntad Popular; and Andrea Tavares, secretary-general of La Causa R, among others.
From Local Hubs to National Influence
María Corina Machado’s national-liberation movement has taken shape and grown despite this hostile environment. Far from being silenced, women have asserted their leadership across every level of political engagement, proving that determination and courage can flourish even in the harshest conditions.
This is especially true at the “grassroots” — the local hubs of political and social organization that are most closely connected to ordinary citizens. Women’s political participation at the grassroots level is remarkably high. While those with experience working in Venezuela can readily confirm this, empirical data are somewhat limited. But there are some indicators that demonstrate this trend. To begin with, women made up half (49 percent) of the electoral team that defended Venezuelans’ votes on July 28. According to electoral expert Javier Martucci of Comando con Venezuela, the group that coordinated the 2024 grassroots election-observation and parallel-vote-tabulation efforts, 15,180 women served as the main electoral witnesses (50.6 percent) at polling stations; 62,000 women were alternate or occasional electoral witnesses; 54,549 women were part of the teams that provided logistical support to those working at polling centers; and 6,151 women served as “captains” of polling centers, responsible for supervising the election-day activities. More than 11,000 women diligently scanned the electoral results provided in the QR code of the official record and reported them to Comando con Venezuela’s electoral team.
Women are also extremely prominent in Venezuela’s parties from the most local to the national level.
According to Edinson Ferrer, national vice-president of the political party Primero Justicia, 75 percent of the heads of his party’s parish committees are women. Thus those directing local political participation closest to the ground are predominantly women. This trend is mirrored in other opposition parties, including Voluntad Popular and María Corina Machado’s Vente Venezuela party. Not only does Machado lead Vente Venezuela, but her second-in-command is also a woman: Magallí Meda. In 2024, Meda spent 412 days sheltered in the Argentine Embassy in Caracas and currently lives in exile.
At the national level, the Plataforma Unitaria Democrática — the coalition of eight opposition parties that fielded González as its 2024 presidential candidate after Machado’s disqualification — offers similar evidence. Of its member parties, half (Primero Justicia, Voluntad Popular, La Causa R, and Encuentro Ciudadano) are represented by women in the coalition’s highest decision-making body.
The Distinctive Strength of Venezuela’s Women Leaders
The women driving Venezuela’s national-liberation movement demonstrate some key qualities. First, these women are self-made — their success, a product of their own efforts and determination. They did not come by their leadership positions through gender quotas or symbolic concessions; they earned them. In some authoritarian contexts, women may unexpectedly assume political roles, stepping into spaces left vacant by repression, as happened with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who assumed her husband’s candidacy in Belarus’s 2020 presidential election after his arrest and imprisonment. The current women leaders in Venezuela, however, carry decades of their own political experience. These women, between the ages of forty and sixty, have overcome obstacles with courage, perseverance, and unshakable resolve. They stand firm in their beliefs but remain open to building consensus and finding practical solutions to problems, facing challenges with a strong sense of practicality. Their maturity matters: It reflects leadership forged in the crucible of struggle, shaped and strengthened in a relentless and hostile environment.
Notably, their discourse does not revolve around traditional feminist agendas. Instead, their political arguments address broader national challenges such as overcoming poverty, strengthening security, and rebuilding the state. While their leadership carries a distinctively feminine perspective, it does not explicitly follow conventional feminist rhetoric. Finally, these women embody a range of political perspectives, from center-right to center-left. Machado defines herself as a liberal; María Beatriz Martínez as a centrist-humanist; Adriana Pichardo as progressive; and Andrea Tavares as a social democrat. Yet despite this diversity, the movement remains united, rising above ideological divides and remaining firmly grounded in shared democratic values.
Inside Machado’s Leadership
Apart from the hostile context in which María Corina Machado’s movement arose and the prominent role of women within it, Machado herself possesses several distinct leadership qualities that have helped to shape the landscape of Venezuela’s political opposition:
- First, hard work. María Corina Machado joined the struggle for Venezuelan democracy more than twenty years ago, working for the civil association Súmate. In 2012, she founded her political party, Vente Venezuela. She carefully and patiently cultivated her leadership with discipline and clear purpose, and an eye on the long term. Diligent, organized, and methodical, Machado’s personal qualities have not only shaped the institutional culture of her own party but also influenced the broader dynamics of the opposition.
- Second, consistency. A friend who serves on Machado’s strategic team once told me: “With her, you can be sure of one thing — what she says in private, she will say in public, even if it’s unpopular.” Indeed, hers is a deeply principled leadership, grounded in unwavering convictions.
- Third, trust. This consistency translates into trust. Once, after a successful political tour through the Venezuelan interior, Machado told me she had been deeply moved when mothers handed her their babies amid huge crowds. “If a mother entrusts her child to me that way,” she said, “it is because she trusts me — and it is my duty to trust her as well.” For Machado, trust is a foundational political value, perhaps even superior to technical competence. She both inspires and demands trust, an attitude likely shaped by the constant threats she has faced under authoritarian rule.
- Fourth, resilience. When González’s presidential candidacy was announced, Machado declared: “We have overcome every obstacle. The most important days of our lives are ahead. We are giving everything — but we will have to give even more.” This is the spirit with which she has led Venezuela’s movement for political change. Time and again, she has turned the regime’s obstacles into opportunities, forcing miscalculations that have weakened it. Such was the case with the opposition primaries, the González candidacy, and the 28 July 2024 presidential election. Although Venezuela has not yet transitioned to democracy — and it remains uncertain how long that journey will take — the opposition under Machado’s leadership has displayed an extraordinary resilience that has effectively eroded Maduro’s regime.
- Fifth, generosity. The slogan of Machado’s national liberation movement — Hasta el final (“Until the end”) — emerged spontaneously during campaign events. One day, the crowd began chanting it to express their existential commitment to political change. Soon after, the campaign adopted it as its official motto. To go “hasta el final” means to give everything for Venezuela’s freedom. It is a political program demanding immense generosity and sacrifice — qualities Machado has embodied. She has been in hiding for the past fifteen months, living in a secure location where her only contact with the outside world comes through her phone. Upon receiving the news of her award, she said: “I need someone to give me a hug.”
- Sixth, faith. María Corina Machado is a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend. She has, with strength and dignity, made extraordinary sacrifices in the name of political struggle, and her example has moved the nation. Her generosity and strength rest on a spiritual foundation. Her Catholic parents instilled in her Christian values, which were reinforced by the schools she attended. She studied first at the Merici Academy, a girls’ school run by Ursuline sisters and later earned a degree in engineering from the Andrés Bello Catholic University. In nearly every photograph, she is seen holding a rosary. This is not a mere fashion accessory, but a symbol of faith that she carries with profound devotion.
For Machado, politics is never just strategy or debate. It is a spiritual battle between good and evil. Time and again, she has spoken of feeling the hand of God guiding her through the most difficult moments. This deep faith does more than inspire her; it shapes every decision, every step of her leadership. She faces challenges with humility and a steadfast belief that, in the end, the final word belongs not to humans, but to God.
The Fight Continues
María Corina Machado’s story is not just one of personal courage but of a movement enduring extraordinary adversity. Her Nobel Peace Prize honors the collective effort of Venezuelans confronting repression, structural inequality, and institutional violence.
In a country where democracy has often been fragile and women historically marginalized, Machado’s leadership demonstrates how principle, faith, and persistence can sustain civic resistance. The women at the heart of her movement — self-made, experienced, and ideologically diverse — show that leadership is earned through effort, resilience, and strategic clarity.
Yet the award is also a challenge to Venezuela’s future — to convert recognition into real gains, peace accompanied by freedom and justice. Machado’s example, and the movement she leads, underscore a sobering truth: Democratic progress is never guaranteed. Achieving it demands sustained courage, careful strategy, and unwavering commitment to principles, even in the face of entrenched power.
Paola Bautista de Alemán is a Venezuelan academic, political activist, and member of the National Board of Primero Justicia and president of the FORMA Institute. In March 2025, she had to leave Venezuela due to political persecution. She is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute.
Copyright © 2025 National Endowment for Democracy
Image credit: Jimmy Villalta via Getty Images
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