Machado says she will return home as Venezuela enters 'transition'

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said her movement stood ready to contest and win a free election, even as uncertainty persisted over Washington's next steps, readiness to engage with interim authorities

Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela’s leading opposition figure, on Tuesday said she is planning to return to the country soon as she praised US President Donald Trump for what she described as decisive action against her long-time adversary, former President Nicolás Maduro. 

Maduro was captured by US special operatives in an early-morning operation on Saturday and taken to New York, where he faces criminal charges for alleged drug trafficking into the US.

Machado says she will return to Venezuela soon

“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” Machado said in her first public appearance since Maduro was taken into US custody, but without disclosing her current location or providing details on how or when she would return.

 

 

Loyalists of the former government are still in key positions — Maduro loyalist Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as President shortly after the President was ousted — and Machado continues to face investigations in Venezuela over allegations of inciting unrest within the armed forces.

 

Machado claims opposition will win free and fair elections

Machado said she believes the transition process must move forward and expressed confidence in her camp’s popular support.

 

“We believe that this transition should move forward. In free and fair elections, we will win over 90 per cent of the votes,” she said.

 

Trump, however, struck a more cautious note.

 

In a separate interview with NBC, he said the United States needed to help stabilise Venezuela before any elections could take place, dismissing a rapid election timeline as unrealistic.

 

“We have to fix the country first… There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump said.

 

Trump’s interim outreach unsettles parts of the opposition

Trump’s apparent openness to working with interim President Delcy Rodríguez and other senior officials from the previous administration unsettled sections of the Venezuelan opposition as well as the diaspora.

 

Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro and the daughter of a former left-wing guerrilla fighter, has condemned Maduro’s capture and urged respectful engagement with Washington.

 

Machado, however, was sharply critical.

 

“Delcy Rodríguez is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption and narco-trafficking,” she told Fox News as she pointed to Rodríguez’s role in maintaining ties with Russia, China and Iran.

Machado reiterates claim of a stolen 2024 mandate

Machado also rejected claims that she lacked support at home. Opposition groups, several international observers and multiple US allies have maintained that her movement was denied victory in the 2024 election, from which she was barred and in which an ally, Edmundo González Urrutia, stood in her place.

 

“Everybody told us it was impossible to hold independent primary elections. But civil society organised them, millions participated, and the country came together,” she said.

 

She added that Maduro’s decision to bar her had backfired: “He feared us. He feared me. By banning me, he thought he would stop us, but the opposite happened. We united the country and defeated him by a landslide, even under extreme and unfair conditions.”

Machado lays out post-Maduro agenda, thanks Trump

Machado described January 3 as a historic moment.

 

“January 3 will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” she said, thanking Trump for what she called “courageous and historic actions” against a “narco-terrorist regime”.

 

“We will restore the rule of law, open markets, protect foreign investment and bring millions of Venezuelans who were forced to flee back home,” she said, adding, “We will leave behind the destruction this criminal socialist regime brought and turn Venezuela into the main ally of the United States in Latin America.”

Venezuela transition remains fragile, tensions persist

Despite Maduro’s removal, senior figures from his Socialist Party remained active.

 

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello was seen patrolling with security forces as supporters chanted slogans pledging loyalty to the old order.

 

US intelligence officials, according to a report by Reuters, have advised the Trump administration that engaging interim leaders could be key to maintaining stability, underlining the fragile and uncertain path ahead for Venezuela’s political transition.