Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela, and the Tall Poppy Syndrome.
Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones. Gene Sharp
The Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome ( see Livy, Tarquin the Proud, & The Tall Poppy Syndrome). Early descriptions were of officials cutting down political opposition. It continues unabated to this day. The metaphor could also include a country cutting down another country, such as Russia versus Ukraine.
Nicolás Maduro has ruled Venezuela since 2013, presiding over a slide from troubled petrostate to entrenched authoritarian regime marked by economic collapse and mass exile. His time in power is a story of inheriting a polarized “revolution,” dismantling remaining checks on his authority, and clinging to office amid humanitarian disaster and international isolation.
When Hugo Chávez died in March 2013, his chosen heir, then–vice president Nicolás Maduro, stepped in as interim leader and narrowly won a special presidential election a month later amid opposition allegations of fraud. Maduro presented himself as the guardian of Chávez’s socialist project, but from the start, his mandate was contested and his legitimacy fragile.
Soon after Maduro took office, oil prices fell, and Venezuela’s already distorted, state-dominated economy went into free fall, triggering deep recession, hyperinflation, and chronic shortages of food and medicine. Over his first seven years, output is estimated to have shrunk by about 80 percent, and more than seven million Venezuelans eventually left the country to escape poverty and repression.
As the crisis deepened, Maduro tightened control instead of loosening it, using loyal courts and electoral authorities to sideline opponents and undermine the opposition-led National Assembly elected in 2015. By 2017–2019, international observers were describing Venezuela as fully authoritarian, pointing to manipulated elections, banned candidates, and a 2018 presidential vote widely denounced as neither free nor fair.
Security forces and pro-government armed groups answered waves of street protests in 2014 and 2017 with lethal force, leaving scores dead and many more injured. Human rights organizations and multilateral bodies later documented thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and torture, arguing that elements of the repression rose to the level of crimes against humanity.
Maduro’s second term, beginning in 2019, opened with a full-blown legitimacy crisis when opposition leader Juan Guaidó invoked the constitution to declare himself interim president and won recognition from the United States and many Latin American and European governments. Yet Maduro retained the loyalty of the military and security forces, regained formal control of parliament in the boycotted 2020 elections, and slowly broke the opposition’s parallel governing claim, leaving him still firmly in charge despite sanctions and diplomatic pressure.
María Corina Machado is a Venezuelan opposition leader who has become the central civilian face of the challenge to Nicolás Maduro’s rule, especially around the 2024 presidential election cycle. Her confrontation with Maduro revolves less around a single election she personally ran in and more around a blocked candidacy, a substituted opposition candidate, and a disputed vote the opposition says it actually won.
Machado is an industrial engineer and long‑time democracy activist who entered politics opposing Hugo Chávez and later Maduro. She co‑founded the NGO Súmate to promote free elections, then became a National Assembly member in 2011 and later founded the liberal, pro‑market party Vente Venezuela, positioning herself as a hard‑line, anti‑Chavista figure.
By the early 2010s, Machado was one of the most prominent voices denouncing human‑rights abuses, institutional erosion, and economic mismanagement, which led the Maduro government to strip her of her parliamentary seat and subject her to ongoing persecution. Despite this, she built a national base, especially after 2019, criticizing both the regime and more moderate opposition figures she saw as too conciliatory.
Ahead of the planned 2024 presidential election, the anti‑Maduro camp organized a primary to select a single unity candidate, and Machado entered despite the regime's open hostility. In October 2023, she won overwhelmingly, taking more than 90 percent of the vote in a process widely seen as a decisive grassroots mandate against Maduro.
The government cut Machado down by issuing a 15‑year ban on holding public office, which its Supreme Court later reaffirmed, citing her alleged support for sanctions and the Guaidó interim government. This ban meant that, although she was the clear opposition choice, electoral authorities refused to register her as a presidential candidate against Maduro.
Facing the ban, Machado tried to transfer her mandate by backing academic Corina Yoris as a replacement candidate, but the regime also blocked (cut down) Yoris from registering. The opposition then settled on veteran diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who was allowed on the ballot and campaigned with Machado’s visible backing, effectively turning the election into a Maduro‑versus‑Machado proxy contest.
In the July 28, 2024, presidential vote, official results proclaimed Maduro the winner, but opposition parties, citing their own tallies from polling‑station records, said González had actually won by a large margin. Domestic opposition, independent observers, and many foreign governments questioned the credibility of the official count, arguing that the regime withheld full results and had expelled or intimidated opposition witnesses.
After the election, Machado publicly asserted that the opposition had secured a “landslide” victory and accused Maduro of outright theft of the election. She then went into hiding, saying she feared arrest or worse, while continuing to call on Venezuelans and the international community to recognize González as president‑elect and to press for a democratic transition.
The main opposition coalition (including Machado, González, and the Unitary Platform parties) has formally claimed that González won by a wide margin and that Maduro’s proclaimed victory is fraudulent.
Several Western and Latin American governments (including the United States, some European Union members, and key regional democracies) have publicly rejected the official results' credibility and signaled that they view the opposition as having actually won.
The Trump Administration also believes that illicit drugs finance the Maduro regime and is trying to destroy the drug trafficking as well as force regime change (to remove or cut down Maduro). There have been approximately 20 strikes on drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea over the last 3 months.
If your head isn't already spinning, Machado (tall poppy) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 10. The award ceremony was held on December 12. Since she has been seen in public for 11 months, leaving the country has been problematic, as has returning. Maduro could block her return if she leaves or arrest her upon her return.
Machado left Caracas on December 10 (Monday), where she had been hiding for nearly a year. After 10 hours and crossing 10 military checkpoints, her two-person team reached the coast at midnight. After resting for a few hours, they headed for Curaçao across the Caribbean Sea in a wooden skiff. They were in contact with the U.S. military, so an airstrike would not target their vessel.
She arrived in Curaçao on December 11 around 3 p.m. and checked into the hotel. On the morning of December 12, she flew to Oslo. She would not arrive until after the ceremony, approximately midnight local time.
The mission was so secretive that the Nobel Institute did not know where she was. Machado's daughter accepted the award and delivered her speech.
Machado is expected to rest in Oslo for a week before a week of touring Europe to solicit support for the Venezuelan cause. A trip to Washington is also planned.
Machado's statue has burgeoned with her latest escapade. She is now a fugitive. This is a story of legend. She is ripe for a fall or tall poppydom. Stay tuned.
Tall Poppy Syndrome Newsletter
Join the newsletter to receive the latest updates in your inbox.
