Madrid: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado expects to be back in her home country before the end of 2026 and is urging the United States to accelerate plans for elections.
Speaking in an interview with Reuters late on Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said that she “absolutely” saw herself back in Venezuela soon, warning that the longer it took for the country to hold elections the greater the risk of civil unrest.
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“We believe that in order to (manage) the anxiety and expectations and the urgency of the Venezuelan people in an orderly, civic way, it is very important to start taking steps towards what the whole country requires and demands, which is free and fair elections,” she said. The US captured President Nicolas Maduro in January, raising hopes among some of his opponents that Machado, 58, would play a central role in running the country.
US President Donald Trump instead put Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy, in charge, saying Machado didn’t have the support needed to run the country in the short term.
Machado left Venezuela in December, defying a decade-long travel ban to receive the Nobel Prize, after mainly living in hiding for more than a year following disputed elections in 2024.
Maduro was declared the winner in those elections over opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, leading to countrywide protests. Machado, an industrial engineer by training, had been barred from running for office.
Rodriguez has since won praise from the US administration for her performance, but Machado rejected that as a sign Trump wanted her in the position for the long term.
“What I heard was President Trump praising how she follows his instructions,” she said.
“They (the Rodriguez government) have never been as weak as they are right now… they are starting to realize that things have changed and this is a totally different moment.”
He passed away not long ago, and we felt this was a meaningful way to come here and remember him, to remember his life with our lanterns.’
Machado said that with Maduro’s capture Venezuelans were expecting major changes to the government and economy, and those expectations needed to be met fast to prevent the risk of “anarchy”.
“It’s like a huge dam that’s been (gathering) more and more and more energy, frustration, and courage, and expectations,” she said.
“My challenge, our challenge, is to channel those energies peacefully, civically, with one objective, which is an electoral process. If people feel that this is not the purpose of all that’s going on, these forces could get out of hand.”
She said the electoral roll needs to be updated before elections to include those previously blocked from voting and new electoral council members need to be selected, something that could be achieved “in eight or nine months”.
She demurred from saying that Trump, to whom she gifted her Nobel Prize medal, wasn’t moving fast enough.
“We wouldn’t be where we are right now, moving ahead, if it wasn’t for the U.S. administration and President Trump’s decision to bring Nicolas Maduro to justice.”
“But certainly I understand the urgency and demands of my people and I think we should move ahead in the democratic and electoral process.”
