CARACAS
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has said she and fellow opposition figure Edmundo González are ready to take charge of the country, declaring that “the hour of freedom has arrived,” amid renewed international debate over a possible political transition in the crisis-hit South American nation.
In her first public remarks on Saturday, Machado said the opposition was prepared to “enforce our mandate and take power,” insisting that González remains the legitimate winner of the disputed 2024 presidential election, whose outcome President Nicolás Maduro’s government rejected.
“The Venezuelan people have already decided,” Machado said, adding that the opposition was ready to form an interim administration to steer the country through a transition.
“We are going to restore order, release the political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home.”
However, the opposition’s claims were met with a different view from the United States, where President Donald Trump suggested that a senior figure from the current ruling establishment could instead oversee a transition. Trump said Maduro’s second-in-command could assume leadership and help stabilise the country, arguing such a move could make the nation “great again.”
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort. “We are going to run it essentially through the transition.”
Trump says he spoke with Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who is to assume power after Maduro’s arrest as per the Venezuelan constitution and that she reassured her willingness “to do what’s necessary to make Venezuela great again.
Maduro, 63, and his First Lady Cilia Flores were indicted after they were captured by US forces during a high-stakes military operation Saturday morning.
They were charged in the Southern District of New York with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X early Saturday
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said.
Venezuela remains mired in a prolonged political and economic crisis marked by hyperinflation, mass emigration and international sanctions, with no clear roadmap yet agreed upon for a peaceful transfer of power.
