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

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 any 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 looked to get closer 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 traveled to Venezuela to meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, further confirmation that Maduro’s longtime second in command was the woman the White House preferred to see managing Venezuela for now.

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.

She rejected the notion that Trump chose to work with Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, over her opposition movement, whose candidate was widely believed to have won the 2024 presidential election.

“This has nothing to do with a tension or decision between Delcy Rodríguez and myself,” she said. But she stopped short of elaborating, instead pivoting to vague assertions about her movement’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.

“I think I don’t need to urge the president on specific things,” 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.

Trump, who has actively campaigned to be awarded the prize, said Machado left the medal for him to keep. “And by the way, I think she’s a very fine woman,” he said. “And we’ll be talking again.”

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 pressed ahead with plans for American oil companies to revive Venezuela’s crumbling energy infrastructure and is exploring the possibility of reopening the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, which he closed during his first administration.

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.

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Meg Kinnard contributed.