Venezuelan opposition leader,
In the stunned silence after Maduro’s capture and the US airstrikes that lit up Caracas,
a different image began to define Venezuela: Maria Corina Machado, Nobel medal at her throat,
raising clasped hands with Edmundo González.
He is the man Washington and much of the world already recognize as the legitimate president;
she is the woman Maduro’s courts tried to erase from the ballot,
only to amplify onto the global stage. Together, they now face a country scarred by blackouts, exile, and fear.
A transitional government led by the two laureates would be less a coronation than a test.
Can they fold chavistas back into civic life without vengeance?
Can they tame hungry generals and desperate street movements at once? For millions of Venezuelans,
hope has returned — but so has the terrifying possibility that, if they fail, the darkness will be worse than before.
