By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to return home quickly, praising U.S. President Donald Trump for toppling her enemy Nicolas Maduro and declaring her movement ready to win a free election.
“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” said Machado, 58, a lawyer and mother-of-three who escaped from Venezuela in disguise in October to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to Trump.
“We believe that this transition should move forward,” she told Fox News in an interview late on Monday. “We won an election (in 2024) by a landslide under fraudulent conditions. In free and fair elections, we will win over 90% of the votes.”
Machado said she had not spoken to Trump since October 10, when the Nobel award was announced. He has said the United States needs to help address Venezuela’s problems before any new elections, calling a 30-day timeline for a vote unrealistic.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told NBC.
SOCIALIST PARTY LOYALISTS STILL CONTROL VENEZUELA
In the interview, her first since Maduro was captured by the U.S. at the weekend, Machado did not give her location or any more details on plans to repatriate to Venezuela, where she is wanted for arrest and Socialist Party loyalists remain in power.
To the disappointment of opposition activists and the large diaspora – one in five Venezuelans have left during an economic implosion under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez – Trump has given little indication of backing Machado.
The opposition, some international observers and many U.S. allies say the opposition was cheated of victory in the 2024 election, from which Machado was banned and an ally stood instead, but Trump has said she lacks support in Venezuela.
The U.S. administration appears so far to be hoping to work with interim President Delcy Rodriguez, a diehard Maduro ally who has denounced his “kidnapping” while also calling for cooperation and respectful relations with Washington.
“Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking,” Machado said. “She’s a main ally and liaison of Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual who could be trusted by international investors and she’s really rejected by the Venezuelan people.”
PRAISE AND THANKS FOR TRUMP
Machado, who has galvanised an often fractured and demoralised opposition in the last few years, was fulsome in her praise of Trump, saying she would give him the Nobel prize personally.
“He has proven to the world what he means. January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny,” she said of Saturday’s raid on Venezuela.
“I do want to say today on behalf of the Venezuelan people how grateful we are for his courageous vision, the historical actions he has taken against this narco-terrorist regime … It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”
With the largest oil reserves in the world and the U.S. as its main ally, Venezuela would become the energy hub of the Americas, restore rule of law, open markets, bring exiles home and provide security to foreign investment, Machado promised.
For now, however, Trump has been told by the CIA that Rodriguez and other senior officials from Maduro’s government are the best bet to maintain stability, sources said.
They have ordered the arrest of anyone who collaborated with the seizure of Maduro and, in a sign of the nervous atmosphere in Venezuela, 14 media workers were briefly detained covering events in Caracas on Monday.
Footage verified by Reuters showed shots being fired into the night sky in Caracas, which a Venezuelan official said came from police to deter unauthorised drones.
“There was no confrontation, the entire country remains completely calm,” vice minister of communications Simon Arrechider told reporters in a message.
MADURO PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN NEW YORK COURT
Maduro, 63, pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges, He said he was a “decent man” and still president of Venezuela while standing in a Manhattan court shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige prison garb.
His wife Cilia Flores, who was also captured, pleaded innocent. They are next due in court on March 17.
Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network with international drug cartels and faces four criminal counts: narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
He has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Venezuela has the world’s largest reserves – about 303 billion barrels, mostly heavy oil in the Orinoco region. But the sector has long been in decline from mismanagement, under-investment and U.S. sanctions, averaging 1.1 million bpd output last year, a third of its output in the 1970s.
Maduro’s vice president, Rodriguez, has been sworn in as interim leader as officials in Caracas waver between angry defiance and potential cooperation with Trump, who has threatened another military strike if they displease him.
Trump’s actions, the biggest U.S. intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, have brought condemnation from Russia, China and Venezuela’s leftist allies. Legal experts have questioned its validity and many allies have urged adherence to international laws and dialogue.
Trump has said the U.S. is now in charge of Venezuela and will help revive its oil industry with the help of private companies.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux worldwide, Writing by Andrew Cawthorne, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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