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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent

In Venezuela’s ‘darkest hours’, will peace prize boost opposition or backfire?

María Corina Machado stands in a crowd of supporters
María Corina Machado greets supporters in Maracaibo in May 2024. Photograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

In March 2019 as a nationwide blackout plunged Venezuela into darkness, hundreds of citizens huddled on a basketball court in the city of Maracaibo to hear their leader promise to guide them out of the gloom.

“We are, quite literally, living through our darkest hour. But these are also the brightest of times,” María Corina Machado told supporters as they used mobile phones to illuminate the night.

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