Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado march in cities worldwide

CARACAS (AP) — Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado demonstrated Saturday in several cities worldwide to commemorate her Nobel Peace Prize win ahead of the prestigious award ceremony next week.

Thousands of people marched through Madrid, Utrecht, Buenos Aires, Lima and other cities in support of Machado, whose organization wants to use the attention gained by the award to highlight Venezuela ’s democratic aspirations. The organization expected demonstrations in more than 80 cities around the world on Saturday.

The crowd in Lima carried portraits of Machado and demanded a “Free Venezuela.” With the country's yellow, blue and red flag draped over their backs or emblazoned on their caps, demonstrators clutched posters that read, “The Nobel Prize is from Venezuela.”

Verónica Durán, a 41-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in Lima for eight years, said Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize is celebrated because “it represents all Venezuelans, the fallen and the political prisoners in their fight to recover democracy.”

In neighboring Colombia, a group of Venezuelans gathered in Bogotá, the capital. They donned white T-shirts and carried balloons as part of a religious ceremony in which supporters asked that the Nobel Peace Prize “be a symbol of hope” for the Venezuelan people.

Meanwhile, in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, some 500 people gathered on the steps of the law school at the country's largest university, improvising a torchlit march with their cell phones.

“We Venezuelans in the world have a smile today, because we celebrate the Nobel Prize of María Corina and of the entire Venezuelan diaspora and of all the brave people within Venezuela, who have sacrificed themselves...we have so many martyrs, heroes of the resistance,” said Nancy Hoyer, a 60-year-old supporter.

The woman considered U.S. intervention in Venezuela “necessary.”

The gatherings come at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump builds up a massive military deployment in the Caribbean, threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is among those who see the operation as an effort to end his hold on power, and the opposition has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.

“We are living through times where our composure, our conviction, and our organization are being tested,” Machado said in a video message shared Tuesday on social media. “Times when our country needs even more dedication because now all these years of struggle, the dignity of the Venezuelan people, have been recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Machado won the award Oct. 10 for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”

Machado, 58, won the opposition’s primary election and intended to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González, who had never run for office before, took her place.

The lead-up to the July 28, 2024, election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. It all increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.

González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Meanwhile, Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in what ended up being an underwhelming protest in Caracas, Venezuela's capital. The following day, Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term.

Associated Press reporters César Barreto in Lima, Perú; Ramiro Barreiro in Montevideo, Uruguay; and Cristián Kovadloff in Buenos Aire, Argentina, contributed.

A Venezuelan opposition member holds up a candle during a demonstration ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony where Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado is among this year's laureates, in Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Ariana Hernandez and embraces her son Emmanuel during a demonstrate ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony where Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado is among this year's laureates, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Members of Venezuelan's opposition demonstrate ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony where Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado is among this year's laureates, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd))

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, the day before his inauguration for a third term, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An explosion outside a local police station in the western Mexican state of Michoacan Saturday killed at least three people and wounded six, local and federal security officials said.

The explosion came as the federal government has stepped up security activities in the state, sending in additional troops after two recent high-profile assassinations.

The Attorney General's office said in a statement that a vehicle exploded on a central avenue in Coahuayana. “The driver died at the scene, while two other people died in the regional hospital, and six others were injured," it said.

The two people who died in the hospital were community police officers, said Hector Zepeda, commander of the Coahuayana community police. He said the remains of some of the victims were found scattered in the area of the explosion, which also damaged nearby buildings.

“With this operation (from the federal government) a lot of marines came,” Zepeda said. “We stopped doing patrols because the operation is going on.”

The community police, which patrol various rural communities, are a remnant of the civilian vigilante forces that took up arms more than a decade ago to defend communities from drug cartels, and then were formalized by the state.

Coahuayana is near the Pacific coast in western Michoacan and the border with the state of Colima, a stronghold of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Saturday’s explosion happened while Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla was in Mexico City to celebrate with President Claudia Sheinbaum the anniversary of their Morena party’s arrival in power seven years ago.

Ramírez Bedolla and Sheinbaum have been criticized for the deteriorating security situation in Michoacan where numerous drug cartels are fighting to control territory, terrorizing locals.

At least three of the six drug cartels that the Trump administration designated as terrorist organizations — Jalisco New Generation, United Cartels and The New Michoacan Family — operate here, in addition to a slew of homegrown armed splinter groups, some supported by the Sinaloa Cartel.

Explosives dropped from drones, buried as mines or planted alongside roadways are increasingly employed by criminal groups operating in the state. Last year, some 3,000 explosive devices were seized in the state compared to 160 in 2022. So far this year, there have been more than 2,000, according to the state security agency.

Michoacan is a key importer of chemical precursors for synthetic drugs. In the last two months, 17 drug laboratories were dismantled by Mexican authorities there. The state also produces avocados exported to the U.S. and is a major producer of limes, sectors extorted by cartels for years.

The state government said Saturday in a statement that an “explosive device” was responsible, but did not provide details. Images circulating online showed a completely burned out vehicle.

Last month, Sheinbaum sent 2,000 troops — on top of the 4,300 permanent ones and 4,000 in neighboring states – to Michoacan following the killings of an outspoken representative of the lime growers and a popular mayor standing up to the cartels.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addresses supporters during a celebration marking the seven years of the Fourth Transformation movement, or 4T, initiated by former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the Zócalo of Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

FILE - Michoacán State Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, left, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum attend a presentation of the new security strategy against violence for the state of Michoacan, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Nov. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)