Maria Corina Machado was never meant to win — and certainly not like this.

A banned candidate, a Nobel laureate, a woman hunted by a regime now brought down in fire and handcuffs.

In the stunned silence after Maduro’s capture and the US airstrikes that lit up Caracas, a different image began to define Venezuela:

Maria Corina Machado, Nobel medal at her throat, raising clasped hands with Edmundo González.

He is the man Washington and much of the world already recognize as the legitimate president;

she is the woman Maduro’s courts tried to erase from the ballot, only to amplify onto the global stage.

Together, they now face a country scarred by blackouts, exile, and fear.

A transitional government led by the two laureates would be less a coronation than a test.

Can they fold chavistas back into civic life without vengeance?

Can they tame hungry generals and desperate street movements at once?

For millions of Venezuelans, hope has returned — but so has the terrifying possibility that, if they fail, the darkness will be worse than before.