CARACAS, Venezuela — Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado demonstrated Saturday in several cities worldwide to commemorate her Nobel Peace Prize win ahead of the award ceremony next week.
Dozens of people marched through the Dutch city of Utrecht, Madrid and other locations in support of Machado, whose organization wants to use her Nobel attention to highlight Venezuela’s democratic aspirations. The organization expected demonstrations in more than 80 cities around the world Saturday.
The gatherings come at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis as the Trump administration builds up a massive military deployment in the Caribbean, attacking boats in what it says is an anti-narcotics campaign and threatening to strike Venezuelan soil.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is among those who cast the operation as an effort to end his hold on power, and he says the opposition has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
“We are living through times where our composure, our conviction, and our organization are being tested,” Machado said in a video message shared Tuesday on social media. “Times when our country needs even more dedication, because now all these years of struggle, the dignity of the Venezuelan people, have been recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Machado won the award Oct. 10 for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado, 58, won the opposition’s primary election and intended to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who had never run for office, took her place on the ballot.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024, election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. It all increased after the National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Meanwhile, Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in what ended up being an underwhelming protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The following day, Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term.
Cano writes for the Associated Press.
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