Washington
\nVenezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado has vowed she will lead the country \u201cwhen the right time comes\u201d.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d she told Fox News.
\nHer comments come a day after she gave President Donald Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal, calling it a recognition of his commitment to Venezuela\u2019s freedom.
\nThe US seized Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in Caracas on 3 January and removed him to New York to face various drugs and weapons charges.
\nHowever, Trump has declined to endorse Machado as Venezuela\u2019s new leader, saying she did not have enough domestic support – despite her opposition movement claiming victory in 2024\u2019s widely contested elections.
\nHe has instead been dealing with the country\u2019s interim president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, who had been Maduro\u2019s vice-president and who on Friday held a two-hour meeting with the director of the CIA \u201cat President Trump\u2019s direction\u201d aimed at building trust and communication between the two countries, according to a US official.
\n\u201cDirector Ratcliffe discussed potential opportunities for economic collaboration and that Venezuela can no longer be a safe haven for America\u2019s adversaries,\u201d the US official said.
\nAsked on Friday about his decision to work with Rodr\u00edguez over Machado, Trump told reporters his decision had been informed by the US experience in Iraq more than 20 years ago.
\nSecurity and political structures were dismantled after the US invaded, setting the scene for insurgency and the eventual emergence of the Islamic State group.
\n\u201cIf 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,\u201d he said.
\nSpeaking later at an event in Washington, Machado said she was confident there would be an \u201corderly transition\u201d in her country.
\n\u201cThe result of a stable transition will be a proud Venezuela that will be the best ally the US has ever had in the Americas,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cThis has nothing to do with a tension between Delcy Rodr\u00edguez and myself, this is about a criminal structure – that is the regime – and the Venezuelan people,\u201d she added, describing herself as \u201cjust one member of a movement of millions of Venezuelans\u201d.
\nMeanwhile, in Venezuela\u2019s capital Caracas, Rodr\u00edguez gave her first state of the union address since taking over as interim president.
\nShe said she was not afraid to face the US \u201cdiplomatically, through political dialogue\u201d.
\nRodr\u00edguez also said Venezuela needed to defend its \u201cdignity and honour\u201d, and announced oil industry reforms to allow more foreign investment in a step away from Maduro\u2019s policies.
\nTrump called Rodr\u00edguez a \u201cterrific person\u201d on Wednesday after the pair spoke on the phone, a conversation the Venezuelan leader called \u201cproductive and courteous\u201d.
\nThe following day, the US president called Machado a \u201cwonderful woman who has been through so much\u201d, describing her gift of the Nobel Peace Prize medal as a \u201cwonderful gesture of mutual respect\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado has vowed she will lead the country \u201cwhen the right time comes\u201d. \u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-526271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n