María Corina Machado

Her ancestors included Eduardo Blanco, the author of the 1881 classic Venezuela Heroica and a relative who was killed in an uprising against Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez.

Machado has a degree in industrial engineering from Andrés Bello Catholic University and a master's degree in finance from Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA, business school) in Caracas.

María Corina Machado Parisca (born 7 October 1967) is a Venezuelan opposition politician who served as an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014.

Machado was the founder and former leader of the Venezuelan volunteer civil organization Súmate, alongside Alejandro Plaz.

Machado was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 7 October 1967.

The oldest of four sisters, she is the daughter of Henrique Machado Zuloaga, a prominent steel businessman and Corina Parisca, a psychologist.

In 1992, as a mother of three, Machado started Fundación Atenea (Atenea Foundation), a foundation using private donations to care for orphaned and delinquent Caracas street children; she also served as chair of the Opportunitas Foundation.

After working in the auto industry in Valencia she moved in 1993 to Caracas.

Because of her role in Súmate, Machado left the foundation so that it would not be politicized.

The founding of Venezuelan volunteer civil organization Súmate resulted from a hurried encounter between Machado and Alejandro Plaz in a hotel lobby in 2001, where they shared their concern about the course that was being shaped for Venezuela.

Machado said: "Something clicked. I had this unsettling feeling that I could not stay at home and watch the country get polarized and collapse ... We had to keep the electoral process but change the course, to give Venezuelans the chance to count ourselves, to dissipate tensions before they built up. It was a choice of ballots over bullets."

She also faced treason charges for signing the Carmona Decree during the 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt.

Machado said that she wrote her name on what she believed to be a sign-in sheet while visiting the presidential palace.

Súmate led a petition drive for the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum of Hugo Chávez, then president of Venezuela.

According to CBS News, Chávez branded the leaders of Súmate as conspirators, coup plotters, and lackeys of the U.S. government.

After the referendum, members of Súmate were charged with treason and conspiracy, under Article 132 of the Venezuelan Penal Code, for receiving financial support for their activities from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

In 2005, Machado faced conspiracy charge stemming from the $31,000 grant from the NED for "non-partisan educational work".

That same year, The New York Times said she was "the Venezuelan government's most detested adversary, a young woman with a quick wit and machine-gun-fast delivery who often appears in Washington or Madrid to denounce what she calls the erosion of democracy under President Hugo Chávez", and stated the Venezuelan government considers her "a member of a corrupt elite that is doing the bidding of the much reviled Bush administration".

A U.S. Department of State spokesperson said the decision to prosecute her was "part of President Hugo Chávez's campaign ... aimed at frightening members of civil society and preventing them from exercising their democratic rights", adding that the George W. Bush administration was "seriously concerned" about the Supreme Tribunal of Justice's (TSJ) decision.

The criminal charges triggered condemnation from Human Rights Watch and democracy groups, the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, and a coalition of world leaders.

Machado acknowledged the support of Venezuelans for Chávez, saying: "We have to recognize the positive things that have been done", but says that the president is "increasingly intolerant."

Machado and Plaz were invited to meet with National Assembly legislators in August 2006 for an investigation about Súmate's funding but were denied access to the hearing, although they say they received two letters requesting their presence.

The charges carry a penalty of more than a decade in prison; the trial was suspended in February 2006 because of due process violations by the trial judge, and has been postponed.

She was also part of Yale University's World Fellows Program in 2009.

In February 2010, Machado resigned from Súmate and announced her candidacy for the National Assembly of Venezuela.

She represented Miranda for the Chacao, Baruta, El Hatillo, and the Parroquia Leoncio Martínez de Sucre municipalities.

She was a Justice First (Primero Justicia) party member of the Coalition for Democratic Unity (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática – MUD) in opposition to Chávez's party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela – PSUV).

In 2011, Machado launched her candidacy for the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election.

The Los Angeles Times said that her name was raised as a potential candidate, and Michael Shifter stated that she was a future presidential contender "who can effectively communicate a vision for a post-Chávez Venezuela that can appeal to enough Chávez supporters".

Machado was a candidate in the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election but lost the opposition primary to Henrique Capriles.

According to the Financial Times, Machado was "dubbed the new face of the opposition ... Even President Hugo Chávez has spoken of confronting her in the 2012 presidential elections."

On 13 January 2012, during the annual State of the Nation Speech delivered by Chávez to the Venezuelan National Assembly, Machado confronted him about shortages of basic goods, crime, and nationalizations of basic industries.

She said: "How can you say that you protect private property when you have been expropriating small businesses; expropriating and not paying is stealing."

The winner of the 2012 primary to be the opposition candidate against Chávez in the October presidential election was Henrique Capriles Radonski; according to the Associated Press, Machado "conceded defeat before the results were announced, saying she also will actively back Capriles".

During the 2014 Venezuelan protests, Machado was one of the lead figures in organizing protests against the government of Nicolás Maduro.

In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.

In 2019, amid the Venezuelan presidential crisis, she announced that she would launch a second presidential run if disputed interim President Juan Guaidó successfully called for an election; Guaidó was ultimately unsuccessful in his efforts.

She was a precandidate for Vente Venezuela in the primary elections of the Unitary Platform of 2023, although on 30 June 2023 she was disqualified for fifteen years by the Comptroller General of Venezuela.

Her disqualification was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela in January 2024.

After winning the primary elections, María Corina was proclaimed as the opposition candidate for the 2024 presidential elections.