Maduro opponent Machado vows to return to Venezuela
Jasper Ward |
Venezuela’s main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to return home quickly, praising US President Donald Trump for toppling her enemy Nicolas Maduro and declaring her movement ready to win a free election.
“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” said Machado, 58, who escaped from Venezuela in disguise in October to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to Trump.
“We believe that this transition should move forward,” she told Fox News in an interview late on Monday.
“We won an election (in 2024) by a landslide under fraudulent conditions. In free and fair elections, we will win over 90 per cent of the votes.”
Machado said she had not spoken to Trump since October 10, when the Nobel award was announced.
He has said the United States needs to help address Venezuela’s problems before any new elections, calling a 30-day timeline for a vote unrealistic.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told NBC.
In the interview, her first since Maduro was captured by the US at the weekend, Machado did not give her location or any more details on plans to repatriate to Venezuela, where she is wanted for arrest and Socialist Party loyalists remain in power.
To the disappointment of opposition activists and the large diaspora – one in five Venezuelans have left during an economic implosion under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez – Trump has given little indication of backing Machado.
The opposition, some international observers and many US allies say the opposition was cheated of victory in the 2024 election, from which Machado was banned and an ally stood instead, but Trump has said she lacks support in Venezuela.
The US administration appears to be hoping to work with interim President Delcy Rodriguez, a Maduro ally who has denounced his “kidnapping” while also calling for co-operation with Washington.
Machado said Rodriguez was a corrupt narco-trafficker who was allied with China, Russia and Iran, and could not be trusted by investors.
Machado was fulsome in her praise of Trump, saying “January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny”, and that she would give him the Nobel prize personally.
With the largest oil reserves in the world and the US as its main ally, Venezuela would become the energy hub of the Americas, restore the rule of law, open markets and bring exiles home, Machado promised.
For now, however, Trump had been told by the CIA that Rodriguez and other senior Maduro officials were the best bet to maintain stability, sources said.
Maduro, 63, pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges in a Manhattan court and insisted he was still president of Venezuela.
His wife Cilia Flores, who was also captured, pleaded innocent.
They are next due in court on March 17.
Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network with international drug cartels and faces four criminal charges.
He has long said the allegations are a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Rodriguez has been sworn in as interim leader as Caracas wavers between angry defiance and potential co-operation with Trump, who has threatened another military strike if they displease him.
Trump’s actions, the biggest US intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, have brought condemnation from Russia, China and Venezuela’s leftist allies.
Legal experts have questioned its validity and many allies have urged adherence to international laws and dialogue.
Reuters
