When Maria Corina Machado comes to town, you expect a lot of emotions. This week in Santiago, millennial bros swooned over her. Young women elbowed each other for a selfie. Cops had to contain throngs of people looking for a hug or a kind word.
“Do you think I could take a picture with her?” inquired an anxious teenager. “She made me cry,” said an expressive professional woman. “She gives us all hope,” declared a curmudgeonly older gentleman with a trembling voice.
Mind you, this was the reaction from the Chileans.
Witnessing Maria Corina in action, particularly after her Nobel Prize win, is a sociological phenomenon. It’s not about her. It’s the effect she has on others. After a day tagging along to three different events, I felt I was seeing something very special.
The irony is that these events happened on the same day that the New York Times reported that Trump had asked her not to go back to Venezuela just yet. The most popular figure in the country, the one who can really unite Venezuelans behind a bold new agenda aligned with Washington’s interests … and they want her stored in a cupboard a little longer.
It’s baffling.
First off, the obvious: her political capital remains intact. If anything, it is bigger and more intense, surrounded by the veneer of real accomplishments and international recognition. The effect this political supernova has on Venezuelans, at least in this part of the world, is as strong as ever. Nobody in the country can conjure up this amount of goodwill. Give it up folks – it’s not even close.
But her aura goes beyond Venezuela.
One event hosted by a local university brought together a veritable who’s-who of Chilean society – all the politicians, all the businesspeople, many academics … and me, el marido de Katy, lurking in a corner.
Maria Corina made her entrance with Chile’s new President, José Antonio Kast, and his wife Pía. People enthusiastically applauded Kast – which is natural, since he had been inaugurated the day before, won with 60% of the vote, and let’s face it, this was his crowd.
Until the US realizes what they have, Maria Corina remains an elusive icon, patiently waiting for her time, planning, gaining strength, and keeping hope alive.
But Maria Corina garnered not one, not two, but three standing ovations. Hell, they stood up to applaud her when they announced her name. Kast and all the others were gracious enough to recognize the star power and bask in her aura. María Corina, if anything, seemed a bit embarrassed by it all.
Where does this come from?
It’s easy to reduce Maria Corina’s appeal to her masterful handling of emotions. We all know she talks about families ripped apart, about hugging, about the heroic 2024 campaign. “Mis adorados venezolanos” peppers her speeches.
However, I think it goes beyond that. The key to her connection with people is trust.
As the great Frances Frei explains, trust in leadership depends on three things: empathy, logic, and mastery.
The empathy part we know. Her speeches are tinged with the tragedy that has befallen us all: lost dreams, broken families, violence that belies belief.
Yet it’s in the logic and the mastery that she brings it home.
The way that she frames the Venezuelan drama makes all the logical sense in the world—it’s about good and evil, about criminal networks controlling the State, and about a regime that has sown division. Fifteen years ago, we at Caracas Chronicles used to dismiss this rhetoric as extreme. It was all true, and now we know, and it all makes sense.
And that is where the mastery part comes in. Her speeches also contain a nod to the learning that has happened in Venezuela. People listening seem to know—now—that freedom is worth fighting for, that there is no free lunch, that respect and decency have a place at the table. Expropiar es robar. Indeed.
Her speech, delivered impeccably, with no teleprompter, links these three elements together in a way that makes both the cynic and the true believer nod in agreement.
How on Earth does the US administration not see that this is a rare political asset that needs to be deployed?
Mind you, she wasn’t perfect. At that event, I thought she missed an opportunity to talk about the business opportunities a free Venezuela would have for Chilean companies. In her speeches, she does not effectively address the raging xenophobia many Venezuelans abroad face.
But those are minor things.
Venezuela faces many tough choices in the coming years. Policy decisions will not be easy, and it’s going to take an enormous amount of political skill to see them through. Only someone like Maria Corina can conjure up the trust of the Venezuelan people that can deliver the difficult decisions that lie ahead.
The US has an ally waiting to work on what needs to be done. Nobody in the country has what she has. She is aligned with you. She gave you her damn medal. She’s right there.
Until the US realizes what they have, Maria Corina remains an elusive icon, patiently waiting for her time, planning, gaining strength, and keeping hope alive. You won’t see these kinds of events in Miami or Houston. It’s not part of her plan. They want her to keep a low profile, for now. That’s a shame.
She’s a star. Interrupted.