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Allies of President Trump are grousing that he didn’t win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s hard to fault the admirable choice, announced Friday, of Venezuelan freedom fighter María Corina Machado.
The Nobel committee called her “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent time,” and we’d drop the geographic caveat. In the personal risks and sacrifices she has made for democracy, she sets an example for the world.
Educated as an industrial engineer, Ms. Machado has been a leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela for more than 20 years. In 2002 she watched Hugo Chávez destroy institutions and consolidate power. She resisted by co-founding the nonprofit Súmate—“Join” in English—to engage Venezuelans to become politically active.
She was elected to the National Assembly in 2010. In 2013 she was beaten during a legislative session by pro-government members who broke her nose. In March 2014 during a visit to the border with Colombia, she was kidnapped for several hours by armed hoodlums. The following week the regime expelled her from the Assembly.
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