Venezuela’s opposition leader visits Washington – National

Venezuela’s opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will meet with US President Donald Trump on Thursday, a meeting that could change the future of the oil-rich South American country.

Machado has been the face of Venezuela’s pro-democracy opposition for years. His political coalition won Venezuela’s last election in 2024 by a landslide, according to international observers. Machado himself was barred from running for president, so opposition candidate Edmundo González ran in his place with the support of Machado’s coalition.

Despite independent analysis showing that González received nearly twice as many votes as President Nicolás Maduro, Maduro refused to concede. Facing arrest, both González and Machado eventually fled the country.

Machado’s meeting at the White House comes less than three weeks after Maduro was captured by US troops in Caracas. In his first interview after Maduro’s arrest, Machado told Fox News Hannity: “January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice triumphed over state oppression.”

“I plan to return to Venezuela as soon as possible,” he said.

The news of Machado’s impending return was quietly celebrated by ordinary Venezuelans who spoke to Global News in Cúcuta, a city on the Colombian side of the Venezuelan border where large crowds of Venezuelans come every day to buy food and other basic items, to avoid the extremely high prices and inflation in Venezuela.

“Machado is our Iron Lady,” said a smiling Juan Antonio, who was in Cúcuta for a medical appointment (Colombia offers free health care to Venezuelans).

“This is the change that we have been waiting for a long time. And that lady, what she said and what she has done and what remains to be done, gives hope to Venezuela.”

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Trump supports Maduro’s ally in Venezuela, alongside opposition leader Machado

“He trusts the people. Every time María Corina Machado gets off the street, she can reunite a Venezuelan family,” said Juan Carlos Viloria, president of the NGO Global Alliance for Human Rights and a community leader in the Venezuelan diaspora.

Viloria is one of an estimated three million Venezuelans living in Colombia, following mass migration caused by Venezuela’s economic collapse and Maduro’s crackdown on human rights. “This is a historic moment, but also a very fragile one,” Viloria said.

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That weakness is expected to strengthen Machado’s meeting with the American president. At the same time that Machado meets with Trump, a representative of the Venezuelan government is expected to arrive in Washington to meet with American officials to discuss the reopening of the Venezuelan embassy.

After Trump announced the news of Maduro’s arrest on Jan.3, a reporter asked the US president if he would approve Machado to lead the country. Trump’s answer surprised many.

“I think it would be very difficult for him to be a leader. He doesn’t get support internally or respect in the country,” said Trump. “She is a very beautiful woman, but she has no respect.”

Instead, Trump announced that his government would work temporarily with Maduro’s former vice president, now acting Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro loyalist and member of the regime.

The American president was furious with Machado’s decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and the recognition that Trump has long desired, which reportedly contributed to Trump’s decision to fire Machado. Machado said last week that he hopes to personally thank Trump for the US intervention in Venezuela and that he would like to give him the Nobel Prize. Trump called the offer “a great honor” and said “it’s great that you want to come in.”

When asked if the move would change his view of Machado’s future role in Venezuela, the president replied, “He might be involved in some aspect of it. I’ll have to talk to him.”

The Nobel Committee responded with a statement that the peace prize, widely regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious prizes, is non-transferable.

Asked about Trump’s previous comments that Machado did not have enough support to lead the country, José Ernesto Hernández, National Coordinator of the Youth Division of Machado’s opposition party, told Global News that he is “not in a position to question or interpret the words of Donald Trump,” but said that “Venezuelan people inside and outside the country are united behind the leadership of María Corina.”

Hernández, who along with Machado, fled the country and is now living in an undisclosed location, said he hopes the Trump administration will ensure Venezuela holds new elections. “Today there is still repression throughout the country,” Hernández told Global News in an exclusive interview.

“(Elections) seem to be the goal of both Venezuelans and the Trump administration itself, because that will provide stability and security to the whole world. Free and fair elections, democratizing Venezuela is the safest way for the United States to be able to protect and ensure its national security mission.”

Article 233 of the Venezuelan constitution requires that presidential elections be held within 30 days of a vacancy, such as the one created by Maduro’s removal. But Trump has repeatedly refused to put off any timetable for elections in Venezuela and has suggested it could be years away, telling the New York Times that the country must be “restored” first and that elections “will take time.”

The White House has outlined a three-phase plan for Venezuela, which puts political reforms and democratic elections at the end, after the recovery of the oil sector and the “recovery” phase of the economy. Hernández admitted that “it is too early to talk about whether elections will be held at a certain time.”

“First of all, they must take important steps for the change to begin. And the change begins, as it should, with the respect of the legitimate leadership of the opposition,” he said.

Douglas Farah, president of Washington, DC-based IBI Consultants, spent a decade advising the Pentagon. He told Global News that he worked with the first Trump administration in 2019 to conduct war games to simulate what a post-Maduro Venezuela would look like.

“I think the power to make things better is very small,” said Farah. He pointed out that the Trump administration must prioritize democratic transition and humanitarian aid over US oil extraction programs, in order to provide stability and prevent mass refugee migration.

“I think it’s clear now that the main goal of the Trump administration is oil, not democracy or the restoration of a decent life for the people of Venezuela. And I think that’s going to cause us a lot of trouble in the near future.”

Farah said a lot now depends on whether Machado is able to defeat President Trump.

“I think a lot will depend on whether he has the support of the US or not,” Farah said. “If he comes to (Venezuela) alone, they might not arrest him because they might think that that is too big a step for the US to swallow. But he certainly won’t be able to consolidate politics without the support of the US.”