Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump, and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado were ranked the three most popular figures among Venezuelan adults in a new poll.
An AtlasIntel-Bloomberg poll, surveying 2,336 Venezuelan adults from Feb. 19-25, found good news for Washington in the popularity of its leaders. Rubio was ranked the most popular figure among Venezuelans, with 57% holding a positive opinion, and only 22% negative. Trump and Machado both had a plus-28 favorability rating: Trump at 53% positive and 25% negative, and Machado at 56% positive and 28% negative.
Former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, in contrast, had a minus-42 favorability rating, with his wife boasting a slightly better minus-36.
Notably, the three most reviled figures in the poll were opposition leaders — Leopoldo Lopez had a minus-65 approval rating, while Henrique Capriles and former self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido each had minus-74 approval ratings. All had single-digit positive ratings.
The three plummeted in popularity after they failed to oust Maduro, and are presumably now loathed for their lack of success.
Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, despite her cooperation with the most popular figures in the poll, had a minus-27 approval rating, with 29% ranking her positively and 56% negatively. Confusingly, her job as president was ranked significantly higher, with 37% approving and 44% disapproving. Her government received even higher marks, with only one-third of respondents saying it was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad.’
The most unpopular Chavista figure was the hard-liner Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace, with a minus-50 approval rating.
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In other good news for Trump’s Venezuela policy, Venezuelans expressed overwhelming optimism that their situation would improve over the next six months, with 78% saying the economy would improve, compared to 5% who said it would worsen.
Venezuelans were also overjoyed with the United States’s increased role in the Venezuelan government since the arrest of Maduro, with 62.4% viewing it positively, roughly 20% neutral, and only 7.4% negatively. Only 3.6% Venezuelans believed Venezuela was worse off than when Maduro was president.
