Leader of the Venezuelan opposition Maria Corina Machadowhose party won the 2024 elections, said “Facing the nation” that a political transition away from the remnants of the Maduro regime is “unstoppable” and argued that any positive changes made by the interim government are due to pressure from the Trump administration but may not carry legal weight.
In an interview Friday with Margaret Brennan, moderator of “Face the Nation,” Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado said that American military operation to capture Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “sent a clear message” to members of his regime who still rule the South American country, “and they are beginning to realize that things have changed for good.”
“So they might eventually understand, and even very soon, that it is in their interest to accept that the transition is unstoppable,” Machado continued. She told CBS that neither she nor her opposition movement were in contact with the Rodriguez government, which she said was due to the regime’s past and persistent refusal to negotiate a transition.
Since the morning of Maduro’s captureVenezuela is governed by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who previously served as Maduro’s vice president and was later sworn in by the National Assembly as president. Rather than oust the remnants of the Maduro regime, including officials indicted and sanctioned by the United States, the Trump administration has sought to work with them, using heavy U.S. restrictions on Venezuelan oil exports as leverage.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators on Wednesday that the Trump administration has no plans to take further military action in Venezuela. He said “the only military presence you will see in Venezuela is our Marine Guards in an embassy,” referring to the possibility of reestablishing a U.S. diplomatic presence in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
While the Trump administration works with the Rodriguez administration, the United States has not diplomatically or legally recognized its legitimacy. On Saturday, American diplomat Laura Dogu arrived in Caracas to work as charge d’affaires of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit. She holds the title of ambassador due to her previous roles in Honduras and Nicaragua. The State Department said that in Caracas it would work with the opposition, civil society and the interim government. The United States maintained approximately 70 local employees there.
Asked if Rubio’s comments to lawmakers removed needed influence over Venezuela’s interim government, Machado said she did not believe that was the case.
“In fact, everything Delcy Rodriguez is doing right now is because she is complying with the instructions she receives from the United States,” Machado said. “So I think the message has been delivered, and so far we see the results in the actions taken by the regime, and in the spirit and energy that is growing among the Venezuelan population.”
Rodriguez’s government has made notable changes in recent weeks, including signing a law that eased state control over Venezuela’s oil industry — a move away from the state’s Chavista socialist foundations. This move towards privatization is
in line with President Trump’s push for U.S. oil companies to reinvest in Venezuela after largely fleeing the country due to the nationalization of their assets.
When asked if she supported these changes in the oil industry, Machado said that “these so-called reforms introduce positive signs in terms of what we, the Venezuelan people, want in the future.”
“We don’t want socialism. We don’t want the state to own every facility or production center. We want private ownership,” she said. “But this requires a rule of law [and] long-term guarantees for foreign investments, for local investments.
Machado told CBS that during her exile she met with energy sector executives. She noted that many told her that a move toward a stable, democratic system would help strengthen faith and new investments in Venezuela.
Machado argued that the changes promised by Rodriguez are based on a flawed legal premise since the U.S. government has not recognized the National Assembly as a legitimate power. Without free and fair elections, she argued, the current government remains an “illegitimate power” and anything that emanates from it has “no legality.”
Rodriguez said Friday that lawmakers would pass a bill granting amnesty to hundreds of political prisoners, as Machado pushes for the prisoners’ release. The follow-up to this release could test the interim authorities’ tolerance for dissent and human rights.
Maria Corina Machado said that while she shares the Trump administration’s endgame vision, she does not have a clear timetable for when the interim government would agree to hold elections. She says ensuring this transition is key to building trust among refugees and political exiles who may want to return to Venezuela but fear persecution and instability.
“So if we want these hundreds of thousands and millions of Venezuelans to return home, we need to have a safe and precise timeline to move forward with this transition,” she said.
Rubio said Wednesday that the Trump administration wants Venezuela to hold democratic elections, but that a transition to democracy “will take some time.”
The WSJ reported that the Energy Secretary told the business community that the election could be held in a year and a half to two years. He previously said “Face the Nation» that the United States may need to remain directly involved in Venezuela for some time. “It’s not weeks, but months. It could take a year or two or more,” Wright said.
Machado, who met with Rubio on Wednesday, said dismantling Maduro’s regime would likely be a “very complex process,” calling it a “criminal structure” with ties to U.S. adversaries like Cuba, Iran and China.
Addressing her own political future, Machado told CBS: “I will be president when the time comes. »
But she added that this “should be decided in elections by the Venezuelan people.”
Maduro has barred Machado from running against him in Venezuela’s 2024 elections, but she has galvanized his party and thrown her support behind former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia. The United States and much of the international community recognized González Urrutia as the rightful winner of the election, but Maduro remained in power despite widespread allegations that the results were rigged.
She then lived in hiding in Venezuela for 16 months and moved frequently, fourteen times, she said, to avoid persecution by Maduro’s government. In December, she fled the country in a daring and covert maritime operation, with the help of an American security company and local partisans. She flew to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.
The following month, Machado presented his Nobel medallion to Mr. Trump, who had openly campaigned for the award. She told CBS News that she presented the award to the US president because she was “really grateful for what he did”, referring to the operation to oust Maduro.
On Saturday evening, aboard Air Force One, reporters asked Trump whether Machado should be able to return to Venezuela.
The president said she was a “very good person” and spoke generally about the potential for collaboration between the opposition and the regime.
“But I think I have to say that at the same time, the current leadership is doing a very good job,” Trump said of Delcy Rodriguez.
Asked if she thought she would be imprisoned if she returned to her home country now, Machado told Brennan that “things change very quickly in Venezuela.”
“If they had captured me before I left, I probably would have disappeared or worse,” Machado said. “Right now, I don’t think they would dare kill me because of the presence, pressure and actions of the United States.”
