Venezuela’s main opposition leader, María Corina Machado, celebrated the capture of the dictator Nicolas Maduro by the US and said the opposition was “ready to assert our mandate and take power.”
She called on fellow exile, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to prepare to take up office as President-elect and Commander-in-Chief of Venezuela’s Armed Forces.
The conservative Machado enjoys broad popular support in Venezuela and was barred by the Maduro regime from running in the 2024 election, instead she backed the retired diplomat Urrutia.
The opposition later gathered voting records showing Urrutia had won the election, but Maduro refused to concede defeat and remained in power.
Machado has been outside Venezuela since undertaking a clandestine 5,500-mile journey that involved passing through multiple land checkpoints, being rescued after 12 hours in rough Caribbean waters aboard a flimsy boat by a team led by a former US Special Forces soldier, and then flying on a private jet to Oslo, Norway, to receive the 2025 Nobel peace prize.
Posting from an undisclosed location, Machado wrote to Venezuelans that “the time for freedom has arrived.”
According to Machado’s statement, Urrutia, who is in exile in Spain, “must immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognised as Commander-in-Chief of the national armed forces by all its officers and soldiers.”
She added: “Today we are ready to assert our mandate and take power. Let us remain vigilant, active and organised until the democratic transition is achieved – a transition that needs all of us. To Venezuelans inside our country: be ready to carry out what we will soon communicate through our official channels.”
It remained unclear what will happen next in Venezuela, when – or if – Urrutia will return to the country, or whether he will take office as President-elect.
Machado, a former lawmaker, wrote: “Venezuela will be free. We walk hand in hand with God, until the end.”
Like other right-wing leaders in the region, she frequently invokes God in her speeches and posts.
She stated: “From today, Nicolás Maduro faces international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations. Faced with his refusal to accept a negotiated exit, the United States government has fulfilled its promise to enforce the law.”
Machado has long publicly supported US intervention to remove Maduro from power.
“We are going to restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home. We have fought for years, we have given everything, and it has been worth it. What had to happen is happening,” she added.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Machado (left) and Urrutia at a 2024 prayer event in Caracas.
