Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado delivers a speech during an anti-government protest January 9, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela.
Alfredo LasryR/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Alfredo LasryR/Getty Images
The leader of the Venezuelan opposition and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate María Corina Machado said in an interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition on Sunday that her country was in chaos and called for the removal of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking while still hiding within Venezuela’s borders, the far-right leader decried Maduro as an illegitimate strongman who had bullied his way into Venezuela. a third term despite consistent evidence that his administration rigged the vote.
“I want to be very clear on this: The Venezuelan people have already ordered regime change on July 28, 2024,” Machado said in an interview with NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe on Saturday, citing last year’s controversial and closely watched elections.
“The regime’s narrative right now is that if Maduro leaves, chaos will ensue in Venezuela. This is absolutely false,” she said. “Venezuela is currently in deep and total chaos.”
Machado – who was barred from running by the Maduro regime – had supported opposition candidate Edmundo González in the race to lead Venezuela as the country suffers a crisis. political and economic crisis who forced more than a fifth of its inhabitants to flee the country.
Machado has been one of the most vocal critics of the powerful United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) since it came to power in the late 1990s. A former lawmaker in Venezuela’s National Assembly, Machado was shot at, targeted by federal prosecutors, banned from running for office and forced into hiding by the government of Maduro, who succeeded the founder of the PSUV, Hugo Chávez in 2013.
“We won hands down in the presidential election, and we proved it with more than 85% of the initial results. The whole world knows it. Even Maduro’s allies know he was defeated,” Machado said.
Several Latin American countries, alongside the United States, agree that Maduro manipulated the electoral system in order to maintain its hold on the Venezuelan government. The country is plagued by corruption and, under the leadership of Madurosaw the country descend into economic collapse and repression of free speech.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of running a drug cartel and ordered deadly strikes on boats he claimed were carrying drugs. The US Department of State is offering a reward of up to $50 million to obtain information that would lead to Maduro’s arrest.
Machado echoed claims that Maduro was acting as a cartel leader and blamed him for boat strikes and broader international hostility toward Venezuela.
“(The cartel) is intentionally destabilizing the region and undermining U.S. institutions because they have made Venezuela a haven for America’s enemies – Iran, China, Russia, Hezbollah, Hamas and others,” she said.
“So this is a war that was declared by Maduro, not by us.”
When asked whether she would support the U.S. military invasion of Venezuela to see Maduro removed, Machado declined to speculate on whether President Trump would authorize such actions, but she called Trump a valuable ally in recognizing the “threat” Maduro poses as leader.
“You can’t have peace without freedom, and you can’t have freedom without force,” Machado said.
“When you face a criminal structure, they used violence, all the resources of the Venezuelan people against innocent people. The people who are now in prison are tortured, persecuted and killed,” she said. “We must put an end to this because it is about saving lives and the regime must understand that impunity is over.”
Machado had dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, whom she supported and directly called on to help guide Venezuela toward democracy.
Asked if she did it in the hopes that it would prompt Trump to help expel Maduro, Machado said: “I dedicated it to the Venezuelan people and to President Trump because I think it’s the right thing to do.”
“I think it’s right, not only for what he has done in recent months to resolve long and painful conflicts around the world, but precisely for what he is doing right now for the Americas,” she said, adding that if and when Maduro is ousted, she hopes to also see the fall of other repressive regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua.
