This year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is, by any measure, a figure of great courage — but also deep faith, who has often appeared in public with rosaries around her neck:
For years she has campaigned against Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro Moros, whose 12-year rule is viewed by many nations as illegitimate.
In particular she toured the economically devastated country by car and motorbike in the lead-up to the 2024 election fronting a campaign that offered an antidote to chavismo, the left-wing populist political ideology associated with ex-president Hogo Chavéz.
Her rallies drew huge, ecstatic crowds, with many supporters declaring an almost religious devotion to the charismatic Catholic politician who promised to reunite millions of Venezuelan families separated by the mass migration triggered by Venezuela’s economic meltdown under Maduro.
Always dressed in white, she often appears at rallies with multiple rosaries around her neck: gifts from adoring supporters.
“I have many rosaries, and I treasure each one and keep it very close to me,” she has stated.
From The New York Times:
A mother of three adult children, all of whom live abroad, Ms. Machado, 58, hails from a wealthy and staunchly Catholic family. She attended an elite Catholic girls’ school in Caracas and a boarding school in Wellesley, Mass.
She studied engineering at Andrés Bello Catholic University, and then took a position in her family’s steel business, Sivensa, parts of which were expropriated in 2010 by President Hugo Chávez, who sent soldiers to take over seven of the company’s plants as part of his socialist nationalization program.
From a profile of her in Elle:
Machado, who turns 58 this month, is a mother, an industrial engineer by trade, and a political force by virtue of her unbending determination to restore democracy to Venezuela. Never mind that she has been stripped of her seat in the National Assembly, one that she won with a record number of votes in 2010. Never mind that she has been physically attacked, accused of treason, and alleged to have conspired in a plot to assassinate Maduro—all attempts to silence her. Never mind that the government barred her from registering as a candidate in the general presidential election after she won the primary in 2023 with 92 percent of the vote.
Machado promoted Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat and political novice, to run in her place, and post-election, he has been recognized by the United States and the European Parliament as Venezuela’s rightful leader. But after Maduro declared himself the winner and issued a warrant for his arrest, González fled to Spain last September. Maduro then declared that Machado, too, had left the country, calling them both “cowards” during televised remarks.
Now, in a pair of video interviews with ELLE, the bare white wall behind her offering no hints of where she is, Machado insists: “I am in Venezuela. I have always been in Venezuela.”
Her husband has left the country. So have her sisters and octogenarian mother, a formative influence, who used to tell a young Machado, “Those who are blessed with more opportunities and support are those who should give back more.”
Machado has three children. Her youngest, Henrique, was the first to go. Ricardo followed. Her eldest, Ana Corina, insisted on staying behind, to be by Machado’s side as her circle tightened…
She spends much of her days in hiding, for her own safety. But what she does not hide is her faith.
She has embraced a routine to give her days a sense of order. She makes the bed when she gets up and dresses as if she were leaving the house. When we speak, she wears light makeup and a rosary around her neck. Rosaries became a symbol of her presidential campaign—she has more than 7,000, each of them given to her by a Venezuelan she met.
She prays every morning and every night, which is also when she plans her work for the next day. “We are not neutralized,” she affirms. From her undisclosed location, she continues to lead the opposition, continues to organize. The work seems to be what keeps her going.
