玛丽亚·科里娜·马查多终于在流亡10个月后重返委内瑞拉。在从巴拿马城出发、历时四天的艰难旅程后，10月25日，这位反对派领袖走进了巴基西梅托市的圣母牧羊人圣殿。这是她自8月以来的第八次返国尝试。要取得成功，她必须克服加拉加斯独裁政权的威胁以及美国阻挠她回国的企图。
María Corina Machado finally made it back to Venezuela after 10 months in exile. After an arduous four-day journey from Panama City, on Oct. 25 the opposition leader walked into the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess in the city of Barquisimeto. It was her eighth return attempt since August. To succeed, she had to overcome threats from the dictatorship in Caracas and U.S. attempts to thwart her homecoming.
今年1月，特朗普总统动用美军将独裁者尼古拉斯·马杜罗赶下台后，委内瑞拉人原本期待华盛顿安排新的选举。但特朗普政府一直在拖延。马查多女士周日突然现身该国最重要的天主教圣地之一，这一戏剧性举动可能会改变这一局面。自美国人将马杜罗押送至纽约受审毒品贩运罪以来，这是该国民众感到最充满希望的时刻。
After President Trump used the U.S. military to remove dictator Nicolás Maduro from power in January, Venezuelans expected Washington to set up new elections. But the Trump administration has been dragging its feet. Ms. Machado’s sudden and dramatic appearance on a Sunday at one of the most important Catholic shrines in the country could change that. It’s the most hopeful the nation has felt since Mr. Maduro was carried away by the Americans to stand trial for drug trafficking in New York.
今年早些时候，特朗普先生任命副独裁者德尔西·罗德里格斯为临时总统，并开始与她达成优惠石油协议，委内瑞拉人对特朗普先生的热情因此消退。他称赞罗德里格斯“了不起”，美国表示她正在按要求行事。但镇压仍在继续，根据非政府组织“刑事论坛”的数据，政权仍关押着322名政治犯。今年1月，特朗普先生曾表示马查多女士不具备领导国家所需的“尊重”。过去一周的事件证明他错了。
Enthusiasm among Venezuelans for Mr. Trump waned this year after he made deputy dictator Delcy Rodríguez the interim president and began cutting sweetheart oil deals with her. He calls her “terrific,” and the U.S. says she’s doing what it asks. But the repression continues and the regime still holds 322 political prisoners according to the nongovernmental organization Foro Penal. In January Mr. Trump said Ms. Machado doesn’t have the “respect” necessary to lead the nation. Events of the last week prove him wrong.
马查多女士因其决心而备受赞誉。她的归途经由哥伦比亚，穿越委内瑞拉边境进入塔奇拉州。策划者深知绝对保密至关重要。一位消息人士向我证实，尽管媒体有相反报道，但此次行程全程未使用飞机。在最后阶段，护送她的精英国际小队不得不躲避委内瑞拉安全部队，并在检查站躲过警方检查，将她偷偷送往北方。
Ms. Machado gets high marks for her determination. Her journey home took her through Colombia and across the Venezuelan border into the state of Táchira. Planners understood that maximum secrecy was crucial. A source confirmed to me that no planes were used on the trip despite press reports to the contrary. In the final phase, the elite international team that escorted her had to dodge Venezuelan security forces and duck police inspections at checkpoints as it smuggled her north.
中午弥撒即将开始时，马查多女士走进了教堂。一位目击她到达的人告诉我，教友们没花多长时间就意识到这位广受欢迎的政治家就在他们中间。常规礼仪被打断，支持者们蜂拥而上，围在她身边拥抱。喜悦的泪水涌流。狂喜的情绪在会众中蔓延。一位平信徒觉得有必要从讲坛上提醒信众，他们身处主的殿堂。
Noon Mass was about to begin when Ms. Machado entered the church. A witness to her arrival told me that it didn’t take long for parishioners to realize that the popular politician was in their midst. Normal protocols were suspended as supporters rushed to gather around and embrace her. Tears of joy flowed. Euphoria spread throughout the congregation. A member of the laity felt it necessary to remind the faithful from the lectern that they were in the house of the Lord.
随后几小时里，马查多女士前往加拉加斯，沿途高速公路两旁挤满了欢呼她归来的普通民众。有些地方人群大到堵塞了干道。这是一场庆祝活动的开始，随后几天里在全国范围内蔓延开来。
In the hours that followed, Ms. Machado made her way to Caracas on highways lined with ordinary people cheering her return. In some places the crowds were so large that thoroughfares were blocked. It was the start of a celebration that rippled throughout the country for days.
在美国国务院面临国内压力、要求让马查多女士返回之际，美国上个月决定：虽然不会主动接她回来，但也不再设阻。在不承认曾阻拦她的前提下，一位女发言人突然宣布，虽然美国“不协助反对派人物返回”，但马查多女士“拥有随时返回自己国家的全部权利”。独裁者德尔西上周也唱起了同一首赞美诗，对马查多女士受到的爱戴倾泻明显感到恼火。“这场闹剧本可以避免，”她对媒体说，“机场就在这儿。” 当然。
Amid domestic pressure on the State Department to let Ms. Machado return, the U.S. decided last month that while it wouldn’t bring her back, it would no longer interfere. Without admitting the U.S. had blocked her, a spokeswoman suddenly announced that while the U.S. “does not facilitate the return of opposition figures,’’ Ms. Machado had “every right to enter her country whenever she wants to return.” Dictator Delcy sang from the same hymnal last week, clearly annoyed by the outpouring of love for Ms. Machado. “The show could have been avoided,” she told the press. “The airports are right here.” Sure.
美国一直在监督政权与反对派就组建新最高法院和独立选举委员会（将监督投票）进行谈判。这些会谈可能会变得更加实质性。关于选举日期的传闻指向七月。
The U.S. has been supervising talks between the regime and the opposition about a new supreme court and an independent electoral council that would oversee the vote. Those meetings may get more serious. The whisper date for the elections is July.
马查多的胜利可能会给特朗普先生的外交政策制造障碍。她警告说，一个民选的委内瑞拉政府不应该被迫对罗德里格斯女士与华盛顿或其他任何方面达成的石油交易照单全收。马查多女士尤其反对美国与巴巴多斯公司北美蓝色能源合伙公司之间的安排，该公司已获得17个油田的开采权。她上月对《纽约时报》表示，该公司首席执行官亚历杭德罗·贝当古是“令人发指的腐败”的幕后黑手，在民主体制下，她看不出这笔交易能够存续。
A Machado victory could throw a wrench into Mr. Trump’s foreign policy. She has warned that a democratically elected Venezuelan government ought not be compelled to rubber-stamp the oil deals that Ms. Rodríguez has made with Washington or anyone else. Ms. Machado is particularly opposed to the arrangement between the U.S. and the Barbados company North American Blue Energy Partners, which has been granted rights to 17 oil fields. She told the New York Times last month that the company’s CEO, Alejandro Betancourt, was behind “obscene corruption” and that under democracy she didn’t see the deal surviving.
贝当古先生否认有任何不当行为。至少，特朗普先生所称的“世界历史上最大的一笔石油交易”缺乏透明度，这一点令人不安。
Mr. Betancourt denies any wrongdoing. At a minimum, the lack of transparency in what Mr. Trump described as “the biggest oil deal in world history” is troubling.
不愿具名的特朗普官员曾喜欢预测，马查多女士的回归将破坏稳定。但本周也证明了这种预测是错误的。在人群欢迎她回国之际，她重申了自己的承诺：她所领导的争取委内瑞拉自由的斗争将是和平的。她在X平台上发帖总结了自己的目标：“为了每个家庭的团聚，为了每个政治犯的自由，为了委内瑞拉的自由。”请致信O'Grady@wsj.com。[视频]《华尔街日报》观点：本周的亮点与失误
Unnamed Trump officials liked to predict that Ms. Machado’s return would be destabilizing. But this week proved that wrong too. As crowds welcomed her home she repeated her pledge that the struggle for freedom for Venezuela that she leads will be peaceful. She summed up her goal in a post on X: “For the reunification of every family, for the freedom of every political prisoner, for the freedom of Venezuela.”Write to O’Grady@wsj.com. [video] WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the Week