Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado said in an interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday that her country is in chaos and called for the removal of Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking while still in hiding within Venezuela’s borders, the right-wing leader denounced Maduro as an illegitimate power who imposed himself for a third term despite consistent evidence that his administration rigged the vote.
“I want to be very clear about this: the regime change has already been determined by the Venezuelan people on July 28, 2024,” Machado said during an interview with NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe on Saturday, citing last year’s controversial and closely watched election.
“The regime’s narrative now is that if Maduro leaves, chaos will come to Venezuela. That is absolutely false,” she said. “Venezuela is in deep and total chaos now.”
Machado—whom Maduro’s regime barred from running in the election—backed opposition candidate Edmundo González in the race to lead Venezuela as the country suffers a political and economic crisis that has forced more than one-fifth of its residents to flee.
Machado has been one of the fiercest critics of Venezuela’s powerful United Socialist Party (PSUV) since it took power in the late 1990s. A former lawmaker in Venezuela’s National Assembly, Machado has been targeted, prosecuted by federal prosecutors, banned from running for public office, and forced into hiding by Maduro’s government, which succeeded PSUV founder Hugo Chávez in 2013.
“We won the presidential election by a landslide, and we proved it with more than 85% of the original tally sheets. The whole world knows it. Even Maduro’s allies know he was defeated,” Machado said.
Several Latin American countries, along with the United States, agree that Maduro manipulated the electoral system to retain control of Venezuela’s government. The country has been plagued by corruption and, under Maduro’s leadership, has plunged into economic collapse and repression of free speech.
The Trump administration accused Maduro of leading a drug cartel and ordered deadly strikes on boats that it said were carrying drugs. The U.S. State Department offers a reward of up to $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
Machado echoed those allegations that Maduro operates as a cartel boss and blamed him for the attacks on the boats and broader international hostility toward Venezuela.
“[The cartel] is intentionally destabilizing the region and undermining institutions in the United States because it has turned Venezuela into a safe haven for America’s enemies—Iran, China, Russia, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others,” she said.
“So this is a war declared by Maduro, not by us.”
Asked if she would support a U.S. military invasion of Venezuela to oust Maduro, Machado declined to speculate whether President Trump would authorize such action but called Trump a valuable ally for recognizing the “threat” Maduro poses as a leader.
“You can’t have peace without freedom, and you can’t have freedom without strength,” Machado said.
“When facing a criminal structure, they have used violence, all the resources of the Venezuelan people against innocent people. People who are now in prison, tortured, persecuted, and killed,” she said. “We need to stop this because it’s about saving lives, and the regime needs to understand that impunity is over.”
Machado dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, whom she endorsed and directly called on to help guide Venezuela toward democracy.
Asked if she did so in hopes of inspiring Trump to help oust Maduro, Machado said: “I dedicated it to the people of Venezuela and to President Trump because I think it’s the right thing to do.”
“I think it’s fair, not only for what he has done in recent months to resolve long and painful conflicts around the world, but precisely for what he is doing now for the Americas,” she said, adding that if and when Maduro is ousted, she expects to see the fall of other repressive regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua as well.
Source: npr.org by Alana Wise