CARACAS, Jan 6 : Venezuelan opposition leader Mara Corina Machado, who has been living in hiding amid threats to her life, has announced plans to return to the country.
Machado, 58, who is under a decade-long travel ban, spent over a year in hiding but traveled to Oslo, Norway, in December to accept the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in Venezuela.
“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” Machado told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday. “Every day I make a decision of where I am more useful for the cause.”
Today, in the wake of Venezuela’s most dramatic political shakeout in decades, the 58-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has indicated she is prepared to lead a transitional government in Venezuela. She has publicly supported US President Donald Trump’s military action titled “Absolute Resolve” against Nicol?s Maduro.
But Trump, however, expressed skepticism about her ability to lead, told the US media, Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect” necessary to govern Venezuela. “Maybe Machado should run. Maybe somebody else should run,” he added.
While the United States recognizes both Machado and Edmundo Gonz?lez as the rightful winners of Venezuela’s last presidential election, Trump questions whether Machado commands sufficient domestic support to govern. In a subsequent statement, he went further, claiming that Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect” to lead Venezuela.
Machado has denounced Nicol?s Maduro’s government as fundamentally “criminal.”
US forces captured Nicol?s Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their military fortress in Caracas on January 3, an operation that sent shockwaves through Latin America.
In New York, Nicol?s Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty to drug and weapons charges in their first court appearance.
Maduro, defiant even in detention, said, “I am still president of my country.” Their next hearing is scheduled for March 17, and neither is seeking bail or release.
Meanwhile, Maduro ally Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as acting president in Caracas.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted that the United States is now effectively in charge of Venezuela and has not ruled out broader military intervention if the transitional regime fails to cooperate.
(UNI)
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