Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday. But in Miami on Monday, other Latin American exile groups, especially Cubans, hailed her award, too — and the big part they took in helping her get it.
At the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, Cuban exile leaders paid tribute to Machado, whom they played a large role in nominating for the Nobel.
Along with the presidents of Miami Dade College, Florida International University and St. Thomas University, Cuban-American politicos like Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed hard for Machado in the wake of last year's Venezuelan presidential election.
READ MORE: 'She is relentless': South Florida Venezuelans hail the morale boost of Machado's Nobel Prize
Venezuelan Dictator-President Nicolás Maduro had barred the popular Machado from running against him in that contest. Even so, the Machado-led opposition movement, with Edmundo González filling in as candidate, clearly won the vote — and, in a remarkably coordinated civic effort, gathered strong evidence of that victory.
Maduro fraudulently declared himself the winner anyway — and his socialist dictatorship then violently put down street protests that erupted in the aftermath.
Cuban exiles feel Machado's battle against the Maduro regime parallels their campaign to oust Venezuela's key ally, Cuba's communist dictatorship.
“I remember people telling me, ‘If we’re going to do this, why don’t we do it for somebody in Cuba?’," said Miami attorney Marcell Felipe, chairman of the Cuban diaspora museum.
"I said, ‘Our moment will come. This is María Corina Machado’s time.”
Although Venezuela's election didn't bring regime change, the drama has only further exposed the dictatorship's brutality and helped breathe new life into Venezuela's democracy movement.
Cuban exiles, as a result, hope Machado's Nobel will also build more global pressure against Cuba's regime.
Coincidentally, it was announced during the Monday morning event that leading Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer had just been released from prison on the island and was being flown to exile in Miami with his family.
A specially recorded message from Machado — who is still in hiding inside Venezuela — was played at the Cuban museum gathering.
“Other nations of this hemisphere, Nicaraguans as well as Cubans," Machado said, "share the same struggle with Venezuelans."
