Venezuelan opposition leader is confident about return of democracy but says little of her plans

WASHINGTON — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Friday she's confident of her country's eventual transition to democracy after the U.S. military ousted former President Nicolás Maduro.

But when pressed, she took pains to avoid giving details on her plans to return home or any timetable for elections in Venezuela.

Her remarks reflect how President Donald Trump's endorsement of a Maduro loyalist to lead Venezuela for now has frozen out the nation's Nobel Peace Prize -winning crusader for democracy. Still, Machado has sought to cozy up to Trump, presenting her Nobel medal to him a day earlier at the White House.

As Machado was meeting with Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Venezuela meeting with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, further confirmation that Maduro's longtime second in command was the woman that Washington preferred to see managing Venezuela at the moment.

Speaking to reporters at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, Machado said she was ''profoundly, profoundly confident that we will have an orderly transition'' to democracy that would also transform Venezuela's self-proclaimed socialist government long hostile to the U.S. into a strong U.S. ally.

Machado dismissed the perception that, in choosing to work with Rodríguez, Trump had snubbed her opposition movement, whose candidate was widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 2024 presidential election.

''This has nothing to do with a tension or decision between Delcy Rodríguez and myself,'' she said, before pivoting to vague assertions about her party's popular mandate and the government's dismal human rights record.

In apparent deference to Trump, she provided almost no details on Friday about what they discussed or even what she thought the U.S. should do in Venezuela, saying, ''I think I don't need to urge the president on specific things."

Trump has said little about his administration's plans for holding elections in Venezuela and far more about its vision for the nation's sanctions-hit oil industry as it presses ahead with plans for American oil companies to revive Venezuela's crumbling energy infrastructure.

U.S. officials also are exploring the possibility of reopening the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, which Trump closed during his first administration.

When asked about her hopes for election, Machado said she was not going to set a timeline or discuss specific dates. ''We are in a complex phase," she said.

Machado traveled to Washington looking to rekindle the support for democracy in Venezuela that Trump showed during his first administration. She presented him with the prize she won last year, praising him for what she said was his commitment to Venezuela's freedom. The Nobel Institute has been clear, however, that the prize cannot be shared or transferred.

But her efforts have so far done little to alter the Trump administration's perception that Rodríguez is best prepared to stabilize the South American nation.

Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she ''doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country.''

Machado crisscrossed Venezuela ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, rallying millions of voters looking to end 25 years of single party rule. When she was barred from the race, a previously unknown former diplomat, Edmundo Gonzalez, replaced her on the ballot. But election officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary.

Machado, revered by millions in Venezuela, went into hiding but vowed to continue fighting until democracy was restored. She reemerged months later to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the first time in more than a decade that she had left Venezuela.

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