It is now three days since US forces stormed Nicolás Maduro’s Caracas compound, seizing the Venezuelan president and his wife. A few hours ago, the country’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, who lived in hiding for months last year, said she was grateful for Donald Trump‘s action in Venezuela, calling it a “huge step for humanity, for freedom”.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner told Fox News that the new interim president Delcy Rodríguez – who had been Maduro’s vice-president – “can’t be trusted”.
She spoke hours after Maduro had pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking and weapons offences in a New York court. During that 30-minute hearing, Maduro said he was a “kidnapped president” and a “prisoner of war” and declared that he was “still president” of Venezuela.
Who is María Corina Machado – Venezuela’s opposition leader
María Corina Machado, 58, is considered one of the most respected voices in Venezuela’s opposition and has long denounced Nicolás Maduro’s government as “criminal”.
She was barred from running in the 2024 election but continued to campaign for the candidate who replaced her on the ballot, Edmundo González. Maduro was declared the winner, even though polling station tallies showed that González had won by a landslide.
She has been threatened with arrest many times, and because of this, the mother of three spent most of last year living in hiding. She had sent her adult children overseas for their own safety, and didn’t see them for about two years.
Machado was awarded 2025’s Nobel Peace Prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela, and her journey to collect the award in Norway was quite extraordinary.
The covert trip, which was dangerous and complicated, saw Machado wear a disguise, get through 10 military checkpoints without being caught, and sail away on a wooden skiff from a coastal fishing village.
She has vowed to return to Venezuela, despite knowing “exactly the risks” – although that comment was made before the US seized Maduro.
Machado says she wants to return ‘as soon as possible’
Machado goes on to say she is “planning to go back” to Venezuela “as soon as possible”.
The Venezuelan opposition leader has been in hiding for many months, which she says was “more useful” while it was unsafe for her to return.
Machado goes on to talk about an “escalation just today” with “14 journalists detained” in Venezuela. She says interim president “Delcy Rodríguez can’t be trusted” and that the next transition for Venezuelans must move forward.
The opposition leader spoke only briefly to host Sean Hannity.
Machado ‘grateful’ for Trump’s actions in Venezuela
Speaking to host Sean Hannity, Machado says she believes Donald Trump deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
She says the US President has proven this to the world with his actions in Venezuela, calling it a “huge step for humanity”.
The opposition leader reiterates how “grateful we are for his actions”.
We defeated Maduro by a landslide, Machado says
Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado is speaking to Fox News, reflecting on the election where she went up against Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking about Maduro, she says “he absolutely controlled the system and the electoral council” and says how it was impossible to carry independent elections in Venezuela. But “we defeated him by a landslide”, she says.
Why did the US attack Venezuela and seize its president?
Donald Trump blames Nicolás Maduro for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in the US.
Without providing evidence, he has accused Maduro of “emptying his prisons and insane asylums” and “forcing” its inmates to migrate to the US.
But Trump has also focused on fighting the influx of drugs – especially fentanyl and cocaine – into the US.
Two Venezuelan criminal groups – Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles – have been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organisations and Trump alleges the latter is led by Maduro himself.
Analysts have pointed out that Cartel de los Soles is not a hierarchical group but a term used to describe corrupt officials who have allowed cocaine to transit through Venezuela.
Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to try to depose him and get its hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves and profits from the oil sector finance more than half of its government budget. However, its exports have been hit by sanctions and a lack of investment and mismanagement within Venezuela’s state-run oil company.
Maduro appears in court, lawmakers briefed – today’s main developments
It’s just gone 23:00 in Caracas, while Washington is an hour behind. Here are today’s main developments:
- Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro says “I am still president” as he pleads not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in his first appearance at a New York court
- He and his wife Cilia Flores were seized from their Caracas compound on Saturday and flown to the US as part of a special forces operation – here’s what happened
- Monday’s hearing ended with a tense exchange between a member of the public and Maduro, who said he was a “prisoner of war”, our reporter in court said
- Earlier, dramatic images showed the pair being transferred to the courthouse in handcuffs, surrounded by armed officers
- Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, while being sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president today, praised Maduro and his wife as “heroes”
- Back in the US, Trump officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, briefed top US lawmakers on Venezuela.
- After the briefing, Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the US Senate, characterises the plan to run Venezuela as “vague, based on wishful thinking, and unsatisfying”.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, asserts that the US is “demanding a change of how a regime rules” not carrying out a regime change and that Trump was within the authority given to him by the US Constitution
- Trump insists during a news interview that the US is not at war with the country and that the person ultimately in charge of Venezuela is “me”
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
