Friday's announcement that democracy champion María Corina Machado had won the Nobel Peace Prize was of course a big boost for a country struggling against a brutal dictatorship like Venezuela's.
But it was also a much needed morale lift for Venezuelans outside the country — especially in the U.S., where this year many of them are facing the prospect of mass deportation by the Trump administration.
Machado's Nobel "showcases the reality" of the Venezuelan situation, said Maria Alejandra Marquez, a Miami expat who heads the nonprofit watchdog INRAV, which monitors Venezuelan regime corruption and abuse.
"Most Venezuelans here were forced to leave" Venezuela because of regime violence and humanitarian crisis, Marquez said — and Machado's "recognition is a reminder that we're about fighting for liberty and peace. It boosts us because it shows what we're really all about."
On Friday, the White House issued a bitter statement complaining that President Donald Trump himself did not receive the Nobel Prize — accusing the Nobel committee of placing "politics over peace" — while not even mentioning, much less congratulating, Machado.
Beatriz Olavarria, a Miami coordinator for Machado's opposition political party, Vente Venezuela, said the peace prize highlights the fact that Machado "is relentless, resilient and focused — someone who's taken boats, donkeys and motorcycles" to unite Venezuelans in a democracy movement challenging the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolás Maduro.
"The regime always tries to go after her, but she never stops," Olavarria added.
Last year Maduro and his dictatorship brutally stole a presidential election that the opposition won by a landslide — even after the regime barred Machado from running in it.
Hundreds of Venezuelans still sit in jail for protesting that fraud — and Machado remains in hiding.
But her movement, with significant resource and organizational help from the diaspora, gathered enough credible vote-tally evidence of the opposition victory to expose Maduro's fraud before the international community.
"Uniting the country to participate against the regime that way was an incredible feat," said Marquez.
In her initial response to the Nobel committee, Machado Friday morning said, "Even though we face the most brutal violence, our society has resisted and insisted to struggle through civic means, and peaceful means.
"And I believe the world will now understand how urgent it is" for Venezuela's pro-democracy forces "to finally succeed."
READ MORE: Venezuela's massive diaspora can't vote — but it's still firing up voters
But many Venezuelans in exile also recognize the current tension between Machado's emphasis on civic and peaceful means, and President Trump's mounting threat to use U.S. military force to oust Maduro and his regime — especially since the U.S. now labels the dictatorship a drug-trafficking terrorist organization.
Olavarria and many other Venezuelan expats in South Florida say they believe Machado herself understands the need to at least have that option available.
"There may be no other way in the end to get those thugs out of power," said Olavarria.
It's not just the Venezuelan diaspora that's taking heart from Machado's Nobel.
Because of the strong bond between the Cuban and Venezuelan dictatorships, for example, Miami's Cuban exile community — with the support of Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio — played a large role in nominating Machado for the peace prize.
As a result, said Olavarria, the rejoicing over Machado's award "is contagious" across South Florida's expat communities, including Nicaraguans, whose own home country is ruled by the severe Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
Marquez argued that Machado's Nobel will accelerate the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.
"When Maduro stole the election last year," she said, "I thought, 'This is [eventually] going to cost him.'
"And this [Nobel Prize for Machado] is proof that it's costing him. What is he going tell the few Venezuelans who still follow him there when they see a recognition like this for her?
"This is only going to keep the [democracy] movement going forward."
