The Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, said in an interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday that her country is in chaos and called for the removal of Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.
In statements still hidden within Venezuela’s borders, the right-wing leader criticized Maduro as an illegitimate dictator who imposed himself for a third term, despite consistent evidence that his government had rigged the vote.
“I want to make this very clear: the change of regime has already been ordered 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 ensue in Venezuela. That is absolutely false,” she said. “Venezuela is in deep and total chaos at this moment.”
Machado – whom the Maduro regime had barred from running – backed opposition candidate Edmundo González in the race to lead Venezuela, which is suffering from a political and economic crisis that has forced more than one fifth of its residents to flee the country.
Machado has been one of the biggest critics of the powerful United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) since it came to power in the late 1990s. A former deputy in Venezuela’s National Assembly, Machado has been shot at, pursued by federal prosecutors, banned from running for public office, and forced into hiding by the Maduro government, which succeeded PSUV founder Hugo Chávez in 2013.
“We won the presidential election by a landslide and 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 maintain control over Venezuela’s government. The country has been plagued by corruption and, under Maduro’s leadership, has plunged into economic collapse and repression of freedom of expression.
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 is offering a reward of up to $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
Machado repeated claims that Maduro is operating as the head of a cartel and blamed him for attacks on boats and 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.
“Therefore, 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 refused to speculate whether President Trump would authorize such actions but called Trump a valuable ally in recognizing the ‘threat’ Maduro poses as a leader.
“You cannot have peace without freedom, and you cannot have freedom without strength,” Machado said.
“When facing a criminal structure, they use violence, all the resources of the Venezuelan people against innocent people. People who are now imprisoned, tortured, persecuted, and killed,” she said. “We need to stop this because it is a matter of 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 asked to help lead Venezuela toward democracy.
When asked if she did so in the hope that it would inspire 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 just for what he has been doing 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 hopes to see the fall of other repressive regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua as well.
Source: npr.org by Alana Wise