Those living in exile Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has contacted US President Donald Trump for the capture of Nicolás Maduro. “January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” Machado told US broadcaster Fox News. On Saturday, a US commando kidnapped Venezuela’s authoritarian head of state Maduro and his wife to the USA, where Maduro to be tried for drug trafficking.
“This is a milestone,” Machado said about the US attack. “And this is of great importance not only for the Venezuelan people and our future. I think it is a big step for humanity, for freedom and for human dignity,” she wrote on the platform X. In another post, Machado wrote, Venezuela will be “the most important ally of the United States in the areas of security, energy, democracy and human rights.”
Machado was excluded from the presidential election in 2024; ex-diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia ran in her place for her opposition alliance. After the kidnapping Maduros announced the presumed election winner of 2024, he sees himself as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
The USA is initially supporting Maduro’s former deputy
However, the US government has so far refrained from declaring support for him or Machado – even though it justified Maduro’s kidnapping by, among other things, accusing him of electoral fraud. Instead they put USA on it, To put pressure on Maduro’s former deputy and now sworn-in new president, Delcy Rodríguez. This had announced resistance shortly after taking over office, but offered the USA cooperation after threats of a second attack from the US government.
Trump justifies his decision to initially rely on Rodríguez by saying that Machado does not have enough support in her country. The opposition politician, who will be elected in the fall Nobel Peace Prize received and dedicated it to the US President, is currently in an unknown location abroad. Machado told Fox News that she now wants to return to her homeland “as quickly as possible.” She criticized the new leadership in Caracas: Rodríguez was “one of the main people responsible for torture, persecution, corruption and drug trafficking,” said Machado.
EU calls for Machado to be included
According to her own statements, she is not in contact with the US President. Machado said she last spoke to Trump on October 10, when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump had promoted himself as a candidate for the award several times last year, which may have influenced Machado’s decision at the time to accept the award but to dedicate it to the US President.
After the kidnapping of Maduro reported the Washington Post Citing US government circles, Trump resents Machado for accepting the prize he coveted – and for this reason does not want to support her. The EU is now calling for the opposition to be included in the transition process in Venezuela. She and the González she supports must be included, said a spokeswoman for the EU Commission on Monday.
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