Maria Corina Machado

Machado Calls for Free Elections in Venezuela, First Remarks Since Trump Oil Deal

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado used an appearance at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Monday to make one message unmistakably clear: Venezuela's political transition must end with free and transparent elections — and it should happen as soon as possible.

Machado's remarks were her first public comments since President Donald Trump announced Friday a sweeping new oil agreement with Venezuela that gives U.S. interests majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves.

Yet Machado did not directly address the controversial agreement in her Bled speech. Instead, she focused on the political condition she has long argued must precede Venezuela's economic reconstruction: the restoration of democracy through legitimate elections.

"For democracy to be fully restored in Venezuela, free and transparent elections must be held as soon as possible," Machado said, arguing that only respect for the popular will guarantee peace and stability.

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Machado is an industrial engineer with a master's degree in finance and began her political career as a founder of the vote-monitoring organization Súmate which was established in January 2002 as a non-governmental organization to defend the electoral and constitutional rights of all Venezuelan citizens.

Maria Corina Machado

Nobel Prize Winner Just Compared Trump To This One Moment Reagan Never Achieved

She dedicted her Peace Prize to Donald Trump

"This is historic," Machado said. "This happens once in a lifetime. This will be remembered for generations to come." Maria Corina Machado, an industrial engineer with a Masters Degree in finance, isn't a politician in the American sense – she's someone who has been hunted, jailed, and stripped of her political rights by Nicolas Maduro's regime for the crime of telling Venezuelans the truth.

She's talking about the collapse of Maduro's grip on Venezuela – a collapse she says Trump made possible.

"For the first time in history," Machado said, "we will have the Americas free of communism and dictatorship."

While the American media spent years lecturing you about Trump's foreign policy incompetence, Trump's team was methodically strangling the Maduro regime with sanctions and diplomatic isolation – and then, on January 3rd, Trump's special forces went into Caracas and physically pulled Maduro out of his bed.

Machado said it directly – once Venezuela falls to democracy, Cuba follows. Nicaragua follows.

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Trump left Venezuela in place after Maduro capture

Delcy Rodriguez, a socialist, met with CIA Director, John Ratcliff on Thursday

Trump Says He Left Maduro Regime in Place to Avoid Repeat of Iraq

The U.S. president warned that a power vacuum could create more problems, pointing to historical examples as a cautionary tale.

(The Epoch Times)—President Donald Trump told reporters while departing the White House on Jan. 16 that he is working with interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez rather than aligning with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado because he wants to maintain stability in the region.

He said his decision was based on a desire to avoid a power vacuum that might emerge if the entire regime was swiftly dismantled, noting the challenges faced in Iraq after American forces invaded.

“If 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,” Trump said. “Instead of just getting down to business, they ended up being ISIS.”

The remarks came a day after he met with Machado, who presented the president with the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded last year.

“I had a great meeting yesterday with a person who I have a lot of respect for, and she has respect, obviously, for me and our country,” Trump said. “But I’ll tell you what, I got to know her. I never met her before, and I was very, very impressed. She’s a really, this is a fine woman.”

Trump earlier expressed his doubts about the level of domestic support Machado had in order to lead the nation through existing political headwinds. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president’s perspective was “based on realities on the ground.”