(AFP) – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has insisted she will be elected president “when the right time comes” despite the United States sidelining her after overthrowing Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump has backed Maduro’s former vice president Delcy Rodriguez as interim leader of the oil-rich country following the January 3 US military operation to seize Maduro.
“I believe I will be elected when the right time comes as president of Venezuela, the first woman president,” Machado told Fox News’s Fox & Friends show broadcast Friday after she met with Trump in Washington. Machado’s party has presented evidence that Maduro stole the 2024 election — claims supported by Washington and much of the international community. But Trump has said that Machado does not have enough support among Venezuelans and opted to stick with Rodriguez, so long as she toes the line on US access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. “I want to serve my country where I am more useful. I got a mandate, and I have that mandate,” Machado told Fox.
– Nobel medal –
Machado, 58, on Thursday presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump in a bid to win over the US president. “He deserves it,” she said. “And it was a very emotional moment; I decided to present the Nobel Peace Prize medal on behalf of the people of Venezuela.” It was not immediately clear if Trump kept the award following their White House lunch. The Norwegian Nobel committee says its prizes cannot be transferred.
Trump had campaigned hard to win last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for what he says are his efforts to stop eight wars. Instead, it went to Machado, who appeared in Oslo last month to collect her prize — following a daring escape from Venezuela by boat. Trump and Rodriguez had their first telephone call on Wednesday, and the White House said he “likes what he’s seeing” from her. Rodriguez said, however, that her government will stand up to Washington. “We know they are very powerful… we are not afraid to confront them diplomatically, through political dialogue,” she said Thursday.
Rodriguez was delivering Maduro’s state of the nation address to parliament while the long-time authoritarian leader is in a New York jail facing drug trafficking charges. By contrast, Machado, who campaigned for years to end leftist Maduro’s rule, was greeted by jubilant supporters in Washington. The New York Times reported that CIA director John Ratcliffe met with Rodriguez on Thursday, a further sign that Washington sees her as its favored leader in the short-term.
burs-bgs/md – Ben Sheppard
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