- Machado says Rodriguez is rejected by the Venezuelan people.
- Machado predicts the opposition will win over 90% of the vote.
- Machado promises to dismantle criminal structures.
WASHINGTON: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Monday she plans to return home “as soon as possible”, slamming the interim president in Caracas.
In his first public comments since posting on social media over the weekend when the US military forcibly removed President Nicolas Maduro from power, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate vowed to return to his country.
“I plan to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” Machado told broadcaster Sean Hannity. Fox Newsspeaking from an undisclosed location.
Machado openly rejected the country’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, saying she “is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, drug trafficking.”
Rodriguez, who has signaled his willingness to cooperate with Washington, was Venezuela’s vice president under Maduro.
Machado said Rodriguez is “rejected” by the Venezuelan people and that voters were on the side of the opposition.
“In free and fair elections, we will win with over 90% of the vote, I have no doubt about it,” Machado said.
Machado also promised to “make Venezuela America’s energy hub” and “dismantle all these criminal structures” that have harmed her countrymen, promising to “bring home millions of Venezuelans who have been forced to flee our country.”
To the disappointment of Venezuela’s opposition, Trump has played down the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.
Machado was barred from running in the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition and some international observers say overwhelmingly won that vote, has a democratic mandate to take the presidency.
