Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado welcomed US intervention in Venezuela, urged supporters to stay mobilised for a transition of power, and called on the armed forces to recognise opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mara Corina Machado declared that the hour of freedom had arrived for her country after the United States carried out an early-morning military strike on Caracas and seized President Nicols Maduro.
“Venezuelans, the HOUR OF FREEDOM has arrived!” Machado wrote on social media on Saturday, January 3, welcoming what she described as a decisive moment for the country after years of political and economic crisis. The post followed confirmation from Washington that US forces had taken Maduro into custody.
Machado said the opposition was now prepared to assume power and push through a long-promised democratic transition. “Today we are ready to enforce our mandate and take power,” she said. “Let us remain vigilant, active, and organised until the Democratic Transition is realised. A transition that needs ALL of us.”
She added that order must be restored and called on Venezuela’s armed forces to recognise opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez Urrutia as the country’s legitimate leader. Gonzlez Urrutia, whom the opposition says won the disputed July 2024 election, must be “recognised as Commander in Chief of the National Armed Forces by all officers and soldiers,” Machado said.
Machado, who has largely remained in hiding since Maduro’s contested re-election, is currently abroad at an undisclosed location. She travelled under cover to Oslo in December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to US President Donald Trump, praising Washington’s intervention in Venezuela, according to AFP.
Trump, however, struck a more dismissive tone when asked about Machado’s leadership. “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” he told reporters. He suggested he could instead work with Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodrguez, saying she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
Machado was barred by Maduro-loyal institutions from running in the 2024 presidential election and was replaced on the opposition ticket by Gonzlez Urrutia, a former diplomat little known nationally before the campaign. While widely praised by supporters for her long fight against authoritarian rule, she has also drawn criticism from some quarters for aligning herself closely with Trump, AFP reported.
