Caracas (TDI): Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado announced on Monday that she plans to return to Venezuela “as soon as possible,” while sharply criticizing the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez.
Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the comments in her first public statement since the US military forcibly removed President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. She left Venezuela last month to receive the award in Norway and has not returned since.
“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” Machado told Fox News. She rejected Rodriguez, who served as vice president under Maduro and has expressed willingness to cooperate with Washington, calling her “one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, and narcotrafficking.”
Machado said Rodriguez is widely “rejected” by the Venezuelan people and insisted that in free and fair elections, the opposition would secure over 90 percent of the vote.
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Machado also outlined her vision for Venezuela, vowing to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas” and to dismantle “criminal structures” that have harmed citizens. She pledged to bring back the millions of Venezuelans forced to flee the country.
On her relationship with US President Donald Trump, Machado said she has not spoken with him since October 2025, when the Nobel Peace Prize was announced. “I spoke with President Trump on October 10, the same day the prize was announced, but not since then,” she noted.
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She praised the US military actions as “a huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity,” while Trump dismissed the idea of working directly with Machado, stating she “doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”
