Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado on Friday said that President Maduro would leave power, whether through a negotiated process or otherwise, emphasising her focus on achieving a peaceful transition
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado on Friday said that President Nicolás Maduro would leave power, whether through a negotiated process or otherwise, emphasising her focus on achieving a peaceful transition.
Machado arrived in Oslo early Thursday, defying a decade-long travel ban imposed by Venezuelan authorities, after spending more than a year in hiding.
“Maduro will leave power, whether it is negotiated or not negotiated,” Reuters quoted Machado, speaking in Spanish, as saying during a press conference in the Norwegian capital.
“I am focused on an orderly and peaceful transition,” she added.
Venezuela’s Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Machado’s remarks.
US military buildup
Machado’s visit to Norway comes amid a US military buildup in the southern Caribbean and President Trump’s push for Maduro’s ouster, including the recent seizure of a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker.
Barred from last year’s presidential race despite winning the opposition primary, Machado went into hiding as authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures.
While Maduro was declared the winner, the opposition and international observers dispute the results, citing ballot-level tallies showing their candidate’s lead.
“I have confidence that the immense majority of the Venezuelan armed forces and the police are going, in the instant that the transition begins, to obey orders, guidelines, instructions from the superiors who will be designated by the civil authority duly elected by Venezuelans,” she said.
Aligned with Trump
When Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, she dedicated it in part to Trump, who has said he himself deserved the honour.
She has aligned herself with hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to US national security, despite doubts raised by the US intelligence community.
Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, accusing it of sending narcotics to the United States. The US has already carried out more than 20 strikes against suspected drug vessels, which have raised concerns among lawmakers and legal experts.
“I believe that it has become very clear that… the Venezuelan conflict is absolutely a priority in matters of national security of the United States and in matters of hemispheric security,” Machado said on Friday.
Maduro and his government have always denied any involvement in crime and have accused the US of seeking regime change out of a desire to control Venezuela’s natural resources, especially its vast oil reserves.
With inputs from agencies
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