Venezuelan opposition leader and recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize María Corina Machado this week published her “Freedom Manifesto,” outlining a series of principles for a post-socialism Venezuelan constitution.
Machado, a former lawmaker violently ousted from her position, remains in hiding in an undisclosed location in Venezuela, facing threats of arrest by the socialist regime on dubious “treason” charges since the aftermath of the July 28, 2024, sham presidential election, which socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claims he won.
On Tuesday, Machado published a copy of her four-page manifesto in both Spanish and English; she also published videos of her readout of the manifesto in both languages.
The text contains a series of fundamental democratic rights for a post-regime era of Venezuela, including freedom of speech, voting rights, education, free market, and a return of the millions of Venezuelans that have fled from socialism, ensuring their right to live in their own country in liberty.
The text also calls for Venezuela to become a pillar of democracy in the Western Hemisphere and a promoter of liberty in the world.
In the manifesto, Machado proclaims that the country stands at the edge of a “new era” and that the Maduro regime’s “violent abuse of power is ending.” The text reportedly draws inspiration from other democratic frameworks, including the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
“Freedom is not a privilege that is bestowed by a government; rather, it is an inherent right woven into the very essence of our humanity,” the manifesto reads.
“Every Venezuelan is born with inalienable rights that have been conferred upon them by our Creator, not by men,” the text continues. “No regime, political system, or tyranny has the power to rob us of what is divinely ours: the right to live with dignity, speak freely, create, dream, and prosper as individuals.”
In addition to proposing a series of fundamental democratic rights to Venezuelans, the manifesto calls for the Maduro regime be held accountable for the crimes against humanity committed against its own people over the past decades.
“Since Maduro assumed power, more than 18,000 political prisoners have suffered – each one serves as a testament to the regime’s brutality. These are human lives. Our friends, families, colleagues and companions,” the text read.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado leads a demonstration against the re-inauguration of authoritarian President Maduro. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize goes to the politician Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela.(Jesus Vargas/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“The world must not turn its back. The criminal regime must be held accountable,” the text continues. “Venezuela will only fully rise when those who committed crimes against humanity are held accountable by both, the law and history.”
Machado’s manifesto stands as the first genuinely conservative and non-socialist proposal for Venezuela — a country that has not just lived through decades of socialism rule, but one in which its mainstream “opposition” parties have been socialist or centrist at best. These parties spent much of the past decade sidelining Machado and jockeying for attention from the U.S. government, while Machado engaged in grassroots activism at home.
Machado is the leader of Vente Venezuela, the country’s only mainstream center-right party, and an organization whose members face constant persecution and arbitrary detentions by the Maduro regime. For decades, Machado has repeatedly proposed embracing capitalism as a solution to the Venezuelan regime’s so-called socialism of the 21st century.
Some of the existing “opposition” parties – such as Democratic Action (AD), A New Time, and Popular Will – are active, participating members of the Socialist International. AD’s Henry Ramos Allup is a vice president of the leftist group. In the case of Popular Will, led by exiled opposition leader Leopoldo López, the party was expelled from the Socialist International in 2024 due to allegations that it “modified” its ideological stance. López expressed his “support” for Machado’s manifesto on social media, only to receive a barrage of criticism from Venezuelan users witness to the challenges Machado faced from presumably fellow opposition leaders in the past.
Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Machado explained that she wrote the manifesto because the country is at the “threshold of freedom” that could mark the end of the Maduro regime.
“These are the values that are shared by our Venezuelan people. We have been so hurt in our soul, in our families, in our values, in our land. And the country has come back together and is rising with pride,” Machado said.
In October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Machado for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
File/Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado acknowledges the crowd during a rally in Caracas on August 28, 2024. (PEDRO RANCES MATTEY/AFP via Getty Images)
Machado dedicated her award to the people of Venezuela and President Donald Trump for his “decisive” support of the Venezuelan cause.
Machado is slated to receive the award in December. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, she will travel to Oslo to receive the Peace Prize, but it remains publicly unclear at press time how Machado intends to travel, as the Maduro regime banned her from leaving Venezuela in 2014. On Thursday morning, Panamanian President José Raul Mulino announced that he will accompany Machado to Norway.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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