María Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” When announcing the award, the committee chair described her as “a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness.”

This metaphor is apt. Machado is in hiding, deep inside a country that is failing. I spoke with her twice late last year, without knowing where she was. A few months before, the country had just held presidential elections. The opposition movement that she leads had won. Even though activists were being picked up off the streets, or simply shot an

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