Nobel winner Maria Machado says she should be Venezuela’s leader
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she should “absolutely” take over the country after the United States overthrew President Nicolás Maduro last week.
“We are ready and willing to serve our people in line with the mandate given to us,” Machado said in an interview with BBC’s US partner CBS. he said.
She thanked US President Donald Trump for his “leadership and courage” after US forces stormed Caracas and arrested Maduro, but said nobody trusted the deposed president’s ally who has been appointed as interim leader.
Machado and the opposition movement claimed victory in the highly contested 2024 election, but Trump refused to back him, saying he lacked popular support.
The former lawmaker, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, called the US military intervention in Venezuela over the weekend “a major step towards restoring prosperity, the rule of law and democracy in Venezuela.”
He said he had not spoken to Trump this year but expressed gratitude to him for removing Maduro from office.
“President Trump’s leadership and courage made sure Nicolás Maduro faced justice, and that’s huge,” he told CBS.
Despite his overtures, the US president has publicly rejected Machado as a credible successor to Maduro.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult for him to be a leader,” Trump said days ago at a news conference, referring to Machado.
“She has neither support nor respect in the country. She is a very good woman, but she has no respect.”
But Machado said no one trusts Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, who was previously Maduro’s vice president.
The opposition leader told CBS that Rodríguez was “one of the main architects of the repression of innocent people” in the South American country.
“Everyone in Venezuela and abroad knows very well who he is and the role he plays,” Machado said.
While Rodríguez, 56, faces US sanctions for his ministerial roles under Maduro, he has not been charged with any crime by US authorities.
Rodríguez was sworn in Monday after U.S. special forces breached Venezuelan security to arrest Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Earlier Tuesday, Rodríguez rejected Trump’s claims that the United States is responsible for Venezuela.
“The Venezuelan government runs our country and no one else runs it,” he said in a televised speech. “There are no foreign agents running Venezuela.”
