Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is angling for her country to hold “real” elections by as early as November.
Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, a holdover from former dictator Nicolas Maduro’s government, is technically leading the state and has been fairly cooperative with the Trump administration to enact reforms in the meantime.
“We believe that a real transferring process with manual voting … could be done in nine to 10 months,” Machado told Politico Playbook’s Dasha Burns this week. “We have a legitimate leadership with huge popular support, and our armed forces are also supportive of a transition to democracy.”
Machado’s statements mark some of the clearest details yet regarding hopes for Venezuela’s transition from an authoritarian regime to a functioning democracy. In Congress, both sides of the aisle have sought more clarity on plans for the country’s future, after the United States ousted Maduro from power last month, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined a somewhat ambiguous three-phase plan for Venezuela’s transition from U.S. control to independence.
A White House official told the Washington Examiner that President Donald Trump wishes to hold elections “at the right time,” but warned the transition “cannot happen overnight.”
“As the President stated, there will be elections at the right time, but his top priority is to bring Venezuela back from the dead and rebuild the country,” the official said. “When the country has recovered to the point where it can hold clean, transparent elections, it will be up to the Venezuelan people to choose their leader. We want a stable, prosperous, free, and friendly Venezuela, but this cannot happen overnight.”
In her latest interview, Machado conceded that her ambitious timeline for elections to take place “depends [on] when you start.” And the Venezuelan leader, exiled to Europe under the Maduro regime, said she has not yet spoken to Trump regarding her hopes for the transition of power to occur before the year’s end.
Trump met with Machado in late January, when she gave the president her Nobel Peace Prize. Trump told reporters afterwards that he envisioned the opposition leader getting “involved in some way” in Venezuela’s governance.
Machado gained international recognition when she secured a sweeping victory in an October 2023 primary election, only to be barred by the Maduro regime from running in the 2024 presidential election.
Machado endorsed the lesser-known Edmundo Gonzalez to run against Maduro in her place. But Maduro declared himself the winner in that election as well, prompting outrage from the U.S. and other democracies, which viewed the supposed win as illegitimate.
GENERAL ‘RAZIN’ CAINE DIVULGES DETAILS ON TRUMP VENEZUELA OPERATION THAT CAPTURED MADURO
Machado called for Gonzalez, the “legitimate President of Venezuela,” to “immediately” assume power after Maduro was captured by U.S. forces on Jan. 3.
“This is the hour of the citizens. Those of us who risked everything for democracy on June 28th. Those of us who elected Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the legitimate President of Venezuela, who must immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces by all the officers and soldiers who comprise it,” she said.
