Machado vows to lead Venezuela ‘when right time comes’

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has vowed she will lead the country “when the right time comes”.

“There’s a mission, and we are going to turn Venezuela into that land of grace, and I believe I will be elected when the right time comes as president of Venezuela, the first woman president,” she told Fox News.

Her comments come a day after she gave President Donald Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal, calling it a recognition of his commitment to Venezuela’s freedom.

The US seized Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on 3 January and removed him to New York to face various drugs and weapons charges.

However, Trump has declined to endorse Machado as Venezuela’s new leader, saying she did not have enough domestic support – despite her opposition movement claiming victory in 2024’s widely contested elections.

He has instead been dealing with the country’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s vice-president and who on Friday held a two-hour meeting with the director of the CIA “at President Trump’s direction” aimed at building trust and communication between the two countries, according to a US official.

“Director Ratcliffe discussed potential opportunities for economic collaboration and that Venezuela can no longer be a safe haven for America’s adversaries,” the US official said.

Asked on Friday about his decision to work with Rodríguez over Machado, Trump told reporters his decision had been informed by the US experience in Iraq more than 20 years ago.

Security and political structures were dismantled after the US invaded, setting the scene for insurgency and the eventual emergence of the Islamic State group.

“If you ever remember a place called Iraq, where everybody was fired – every single person, the police, the generals, everybody was fired – and they ended up being ISIS… I remember that,” he said.

Speaking later at an event in Washington, Machado said she was confident there would be an “orderly transition” in her country.

“The result of a stable transition will be a proud Venezuela that will be the best ally the US has ever had in the Americas,” she said.

“This has nothing to do with a tension between Delcy Rodríguez and myself, this is about a criminal structure – that is the regime – and the Venezuelan people,” she added, describing herself as “just one member of a movement of millions of Venezuelans”.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela’s capital Caracas, Rodríguez gave her first state of the union address since taking over as interim president.

She said she was not afraid to face the US “diplomatically, through political dialogue”.

Rodríguez also said Venezuela needed to defend its “dignity and honour”, and announced oil industry reforms to allow more foreign investment in a step away from Maduro’s policies.

Trump called Rodríguez a “terrific person” on Wednesday after the pair spoke on the phone, a conversation the Venezuelan leader called “productive and courteous”.

The following day, the US president called Machado a “wonderful woman who has been through so much”, describing her gift of the Nobel Peace Prize medal as a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect”.