Venezuela opposition leader confident in eventual free elections after meeting T
WASHINGTON, Jan 15 — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado expressed confidence on Friday that Venezuela would see an orderly transition to free elections, but cautioned the road ahead would be difficult and complex.
Machado spoke a day after meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House, where she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to seek US support for the opposition's role in Venezuela's future.
"I am profoundly, profoundly confident that we will have an orderly transition (to elections)," she told a press conference, stressing the process would take time.
Machado cited no tangible agreements with the US following their discussion and acknowledged "there may be some phase that we hadn't anticipated or that we don't like."
Trump has backed former Maduro loyalists, led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, to govern the OPEC nation for now, prioritizing access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves since the January 3 raid that toppled Nicolas Maduro.
Machado branded Rodriguez a "communist" and said she holds an unsustainable position as head of a repressive system, while insisting the situation had nothing to do with tension between them.
Coinciding with Machado's visit, CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Caracas on Thursday, marking the highest-level known US visit since Maduro's toppling, with a photo showing Ratcliffe and Rodriguez shaking hands.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Machado was a "wonderful woman who has been through so much" and called her gift of the Nobel medal "a wonderful gesture of mutual respect."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump stood by his "realistic" assessment that Machado did not currently have the support needed to lead Venezuela in the short term.
Machado's movement was widely seen as the legitimate winner of the 2024 election that Maduro was accused of rigging, and she fled Venezuela in a daring seaborne escape in December.
She is now competing for Trump's ear with members of Venezuela's government while asserting the opposition is participating in the country's transition without offering specifics.