This article is based on original notes created in November 2023 following the primary elections of the opposition sectors in Venezuela, where María Corina Machado, a figure representing traditional bourgeoisie and global right, supposedly emerged victorious. Today, coinciding with her presentation of “her” Nobel Peace Prize, which she did not attend due to fears of an attack (her perpetual victimization), we revisit and share the article from two years ago in light of recent events and circumstances.
La Tabla Analysis Team/Data Journalism Platform Original Version NOV 2023 Updated Version DEC 2025
María Corina Machado has risen as one of the most polarizing and significant figures in Venezuelan opposition during the 2020s. Her political background, socioeconomic profile, and campaign strategies place her at the center of a debate that goes beyond elections to address historical conflicts of class, power, and external interference.
This article analyzes her figure using the main discursive axes that emerged from criticisms published in La Tabla in November 2023, contextualizing them within the struggle for power in Venezuela.
Structure and Key Points of the Original Analysis
The La Tabla article is organized around four main argumentative lines:
1. Financing and International Linkage: It is asserted that her candidacy is supported by a network of civil organizations and foreign political foundations (especially German) operating in Venezuela since the late 1980s, promoting a model of “citizen politics” without parties.
2. Oligarchic Bourgeoisie Project: She is framed as a political project of Venezuela’s large industrial-financial bourgeoisie, seeking to regain direct control of the state apparatus, historically held by popular or labor-origin politicians under Chavismo.
3. Victimization Strategy: Machado builds her political narrative from the role of victim—either of opposition parties, Chavismo, or alleged persecutions—as a resource to gain legitimacy and support.
4. Questioning the Primaries: The transparency and validity of the opposition primary process on October 22, 2023, are challenged, accused of lacking records, audits, and verifiable electoral trails, which would have facilitated her triumph in a rigged scenario.
Origin and Class Representation
María Corina Machado comes from one of the wealthiest traditional families of Caracas’s oligarchy, linked to business clans from various sectors. Her candidacy is interpreted by official sectors—and by analyses like those of La Tabla—as the realization of a long-standing aspiration of Latin American bourgeoisies: for a direct heir of the economic elite to assume political power, displacing leaders of popular origin or with populist discourses. Her presentation of a well-profiled technical team of economic advisors is read not only as a show of seriousness but as a hint to global financial capital and businesspeople who aspire to a technocratic management of the State.
Linkage with International Actors and Civil Society
A recurring criticism is her connection to a network of NGOs, European political foundations (especially German), and an ecosystem of civil associations that have promoted, since the 90s, a model of political participation “without parties” in Latin America. This framework, according to the analyzed source, would have created the conditions for Machado to present herself as an “independent” candidate and achieve a disproportionate media and organizational projection.
Victimization as a Strategy
Throughout her career, Machado has cultivated the image of a political victim: of party exclusion, of “Chavista tyranny,” of judicial inhabilitations. This strategy allows her to avoid substantive debates about her program and present herself as a symbol of a struggle against persecution. The article even recalls an incident from 2008 where she allegedly faked an attack to reinforce this narrative, showing a continuity in the use of this rhetorical and emotional resource.
Controversial Electoral Context
Machado’s victory in the October 2023 primaries was marked by accusations of opacity. The absence of physical records, lack of comprehensive audits, and the inability to verify electoral subprocesses raised doubts about the legitimacy of the result. For Chavismo, this situation was a “staged event” aimed at projecting a unity and popular support that, in practice, would not be verified. This controversy fueled the judicialization of the process and Machado’s subsequent disqualification by the Supreme Court.
Machado in the Current Political Landscape
More than just a candidacy, María Corina Machado represents a project for the restoration of political power of Venezuela’s traditional economic elite, articulated with international networks and wrapped in a narrative of victimization and democratic struggle. Her figure embodies the historical antagonisms of the country: people vs. oligarchy, Chavismo vs. opposition, sovereignty vs. interference. In the current context, her disqualification and international pressure in favor of her candidacy have further strained the political scene, reigniting debates about the legitimacy of electoral mechanisms and the future of democracy in Venezuela. Therefore, her characterization cannot be separated from these layers of economic, media, and geopolitical conflict defining the 21st-century Venezuelan crisis.
In Closing
Recent events confirm María Corina Machado’s characterization as a political operator at the service of global capital.
The American naval deployment in the Caribbean supports her power ambitions after she offered the privatization of national resources.
Her recent refusal to personally accept an “international award,” citing the risk of an attack, reaffirms her strategy of perpetual victimization.
Simultaneously, she manipulates the electoral narrative while maintaining the principle of the Venezuelan bipartisan democracy from 1958-1998 that “the act kills the vote.” Today, she aims to validate a victory in 2024 through questionable and dubious records, demonstrating that her commitment is not with the democratic process but with power control by any means.
Thus, her project merges the interests of the traditional oligarchy with those of global corporate capital, exacerbating interference and national destabilization.