Maduro opponent Machado vows to return to Venezuela, wants an election

WASHINGTON -- 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.

Trump appears, however, to hope for now to work with interim President Delcy ‍Rodriguez and other senior officials from Maduro’s government, disappointing the opposition and contributing to nervousness in Venezuela.

“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” said Machado, 58, 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’ “Hannity” program. “In free and fair elections, we will win over 90 per cent of the votes.”

Trump has said the U.S. needs to help address Venezuela’s problems before an election, calling a 30-day timeline unrealistic. “We have to fix the country first ... There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told NBC.

Socialist Party loyalists still control Venezuela

In the interview late on Monday, her first since Maduro was captured in Caracas by U.S. commandos, Machado did not give her location or more details on returning to Venezuela, where loyalists of Maduro’s Socialist Party remain in power, and Machado is under investigation for inciting insurrection in ⁠the military.

To the dismay of the large diaspora - one in five Venezuelans left during an economic implosion - Trump has said Machado lacks support. The opposition, some international observers and many U.S. allies ‍say Machado’s movement was cheated of victory in the 2024 election, from which Machado was banned and an ally stood instead.

The daughter of a left-wing guerrilla fighter, Rodriguez is a diehard Maduro ally who has denounced his “kidnapping” while also calling for respectful relations and co-operation with Washington.

“Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking,” Machado said, noting Rodriguez’s liaison role with allies Russia, China and Iran.

Praise and thanks for Trump

Machado, who has galvanized an often fractured and demoralized opposition in recent years, said she would personally give Trump the Nobel Prize.

“Jan. 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny,” she said of Saturday’s raid.

She thanked Trump for “his courageous vision, the historical actions he has taken against this narco-terrorist regime.”

With the world’s largest oil reserves and ​the U.S. as its main ally, Venezuela would become the energy hub of the Americas, restore the rule of law, open markets and bring home exiles, Machado said.

Trump has, however, been told by the CIA that Rodriguez and other senior officials from Maduro’s government are the best bet to maintain stability, sources said.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has been on the streets patrolling with security forces.

“Always loyal, never traitors. Doubt is betrayal!” they chanted in one of several overnight social media posts by the Venezuelan government.

Authorities have ordered the arrest of anyone who collaborated with the seizure of ⁠Maduro. The government has not given a number for those killed in the U.S. operation, but the army posted a list of 23 names of its dead.

Fourteen media workers were briefly detained covering events in Caracas on Monday, and shots were fired on Monday night into the sky above the city, which a Venezuelan official said came from police to deter unauthorized drones.

“There was no confrontation, the entire country remains completely calm,” Vice-Minister of Communications Simon Arrechider told reporters.

With nearly 900 political prisoners behind bars, according to a leading local rights group, Machado’s Vente Venezuela movement demanded on Monday that they be released immediately as a ⁠first step toward restoring democracy.

Maduro pleads not guilty

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.

He has long denied cocaine-trafficking allegations, ‌saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on oil.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek Saab called on Tuesday for the U.S. judge overseeing Maduro’s case to recognize what he said was a lack of U.S. jurisdiction and Maduro’s immunity from prosecution as a head of state. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, should be freed unconditionally immediately, Saab said to reporters.

Venezuela has about 303 billion barrels in reserves of mostly hard-to-extract heavy oil. But the sector has long ⁠been in decline from mismanagement, underinvestment and U.S. sanctions. Production averaged 1.1 million barrels per day last year, a third of its output in the 1970s and much less than producers such as the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

With the U.S. imposing an embargo, Venezuela’s main oil ports entered their fifth day on Tuesday without delivering crude for state-run PDVSA’s main buyers in Asia. Venezuela’s bonds extended a rally on investor optimism over a post-Maduro future.

Worried world

Rodriguez, Venezuela’s first female head of state, has wavered between angry defiance and potential co-operation with Trump. He has threatened another strike if her government displeases him.

According to the Politico news site, U.S. officials ‌have told Rodriguez they want to see a crackdown on drug flows, the departure of Iranian, ‍Cuban and other operatives hostile to Washington, and an end to oil sales to U.S. adversaries.

They also expect her to eventually facilitate a free vote and stand down, Politico said, quoting a U.S. official and another person familiar with internal Trump administration discussions.

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.

Allies of the United States have urged adherence to international law.

“It sends a signal that the powerful can do whatever they like,” the UN human rights office said in the latest expression ‍of international concern.

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.

By Jasper Ward

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Rod Nickel; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Peter Graff and Daniel Wallis)