José Enrique Arrioja on BBC about María Corina Machado's Significance for Venezuelans
José Enrique Arrioja on BBC about María Corina Machado's Significance for Venezuelans
The Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner embodies the desire to "turn the page," said the Americas Quarterly managing editor.
In a BBC World Service interview, José Enrique Arrioja, managing editor of Americas Quarterly, spoke about Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, a day before the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, which was accepted by her daughter on her mother's behalf.
Arrioja argued that this achievement opens a "new phase" in the relationship between the United States and Venezuela, and that it could potentially influence regional leaders to take a "firmer" stand on this crisis.
The expert also discussed the importance of Machado for Venezuelans and the fight for democracy.
"The deep desire within most of the Venezuela population [is] to actually turn the page of this more than 27 years of this socialist revolution that started with Hugo Chávez and in 2013 with Maduro. To just finally say goodbye to an economic debacle that we haven't seen in the Western Hemisphere outside times of war, in centuries. So that is [the] specific possibility of changing, transitioning to democracy at some point. It's what gives special relevance and special meaning to what María Corina embodies and signifies for the regular Venezuelans."
