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Agence France-Presse

Nicolas Maduro’s time is up but he can still leave power peacefully, Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said in an interview from hiding on Monday.
Offering a barbed olive branch to Venezuela’s long-lasting leader, 58-year-old Machado said President Maduro could get personal guarantees if he were to cede power.
“Maduro currently has the opportunity to move toward a peaceful transition,” the opposition figurehead told Agence France-Presse as a flotilla of US warships amassed off the coast of Venezuela.
“We are ready to offer guarantees, guarantees that we will not make public until we are sitting at that negotiation table.

“If he continues to resist, the consequences will be entirely his responsibility,” she warned. But “with or without negotiation, he will leave power.”
Machado admitted to still being shocked about her long-shot Nobel win last week.
“It was one of the biggest surprises of my life, and I have to admit that even today, three days later, I’m still processing it.”
But she hoped to leverage her win - along with mounting pressure from the United States - to oust a government that has been in power for more than a quarter of a century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
Machado said guarantees would also be offered to those who help facilitate a transition, including the military, which was vital to the regime’s survival.
“This message has been sent to the entire structure of the armed forces, police, and public employees,” Machado said.

“More and more, they (military personnel) are reaching out and providing us with information,” she added.
Asked whether she envisioned an uprising, she replied: “We all - civilians and military - have a role to play”.
Machado declined to speculate on a possible US military intervention.
In August, Washington deployed eight warships to the area, the biggest military build-up in the Western Hemisphere since the US invasion of Panama in 1989.
To date, the Trump administration has struck four boats it claimed were being used for drug trafficking, with a toll of at least 21 deaths.
Several sources close to the US government have indicated imminent strikes targeting inside Venezuela.

Maduro has branded Machado a “demonic witch” and accused her of calling for a foreign invasion.
She deflected detailed questions about her contacts with Washington, but said she maintains “fluid communication” with Washington and governments across Latin America and Europe.
Machado said her Nobel win and the massive US military deployment off Venezuela’s coast put the regime in crisis.
“They know we are in a final and decisive phase. In recent hours, several comrades have been arrested, and repression is intensifying.”
“It’s a way for the regime to appear strong, but they know the Nobel and the deployment were a fatal blow,” Machado said.
“The whole world knows they were soundly defeated. We have proven our victory,” she added, referring to the 2024 presidential election.
The opposition claims to have collected vote tallies proving its win and the regime’s fraud.
The National Electoral Council, widely seen as controlled by the government, declared Maduro the winner without releasing detailed results, citing a cyberattack.
“The one who declared war on Venezuelans is Nicolas Maduro,” Machado said.
She accused the regime of being infiltrated by foreign allies: “The real invasion here is by Cubans, Russians, Iranians, Hezbollah, Hamas, drug cartels, and the Farc guerrilla”.
“We Venezuelans don’t have firearms. We have our voice, civic organisation, pressure, and denunciation,” she said.
Machado dedicated her Nobel to “the suffering Venezuelan people” and to US President Donald Trump.
“There’s a broad consensus among Venezuelans to recognise President Trump for what we see as just and necessary,” she claimed.
“It’s a message to show how much Venezuela needs his leadership and the international coalition that has formed.”
Machado said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the opposition considers the rightful winner of the 2024 election, has publicly asked her to serve as vice-president.
“I’ll be wherever I can be most useful to our country,” she said.
On her time in hiding since the election, she concluded: “I’m not counting the days - I’m subtracting the ones that remain”.
“I have no doubt we’re in a countdown,” she said.


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Americas and the Caribbean

Venezuela’s Nobel laureate Machado urges President Maduro to cede power peacefully

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Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Photo: Reuters

Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado during an interview via Zoom. Photo: AFP

President Nicolas Maduro aims an arrow during Indigenous Day. Photo: AP

Armed demonstrators march in support of President Nicolas Maduro. Photo: AP

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The Venezuelan embassy in Oslo, Norway on Monday. Photo: EPA

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Photo: AFP

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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures supporters during a protest in Caracas in January. Photo: AFP

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado attends a rally in San Cristobal, Venezuela, in June 2024. Photo: Reuters

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US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

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World

Americas

Maria Corina Machado, speaking from hiding, warned the president that he will leave power ‘with or without negotiation’


Maria Corina Machado, speaking from hiding, warned the president that he will leave power ‘with or without negotiation’.
