Houston (AFP) – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told AFP on Tuesday that her country’s formerly all-powerful socialist ideology has been fatally “wounded” by US President Donald Trump. The regime known as “Chavismo” that held Venezuela in its grip for a quarter of a century under Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro is “wounded irreparably and is being dismantled,” Machado said.
The oil-rich Latin American country was thrown into turmoil this January when US military forces toppled leftist Maduro, who has now been replaced with his former deputy Delcy Rodriguez. While Rodriguez served under Maduro, she has proved eager to bend to Trump’s demands, including reopening the country to US oil companies. Last week, she ordered a wide-ranging reshuffle of senior military leaders.
“Following President Trump’s instructions, they are dismantling their own repressive and corrupt structures — a crucial step toward the transition,” Machado said during an interview with AFP in Houston, Texas, where she was attending the CERAWeek global energy forum. Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, said that when presidential elections are held again in Venezuela, she will participate “in that electoral process.” However, she did not specify whether she would run.
Machado said she believed that “Venezuelans will freely decide who they want” as leader in the next elections. Machado was banned from running for president in the 2024 election. After Maduro claimed a reelection victory, a wave of repression forced her to remain in hiding for more than a year. She has remained in the United States for most of her exile.
In January, just two weeks after US forces snatched Maduro and brought him to New York for trial, she met with Trump in the White House and presented him with her Nobel prize. Trump has said he would like to “get her involved” in Venezuela’s political process, but he has so far sidelined Machado and backed Rodriguez as interim leader. Maduro is being held in a New York jail while awaiting trial on US drug trafficking charges.
© 2024 AFP
