Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday left her hideout and reappeared in public for the first time in months, risking arrest as anti-government protesters made a last-ditch attempt to block President Nicolás Maduro from clinging to power.

Syria had experienced 13 years of civil war and splintered into religious and ethnic factions before the regime fell. While Venezuela’s situation differs in many respects from that of Syria, the repressive regime in Caracas shares allies with Assad’s ousted government and, like his, is loathed by most citizens.