Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has vowed to return to the country as soon as possible and rejected the authority of Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president backed by the United States after the removal of Nicolás Maduro. In an interview with Fox News, Machado said her movement was ready to win a free election and praised Donald Trump for toppling Maduro.
Many had expected Machado to take charge after Maduro's detention on Saturday, but Trump instead gave his backing to Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice-president. Machado accused Rodríguez of being 'one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking' in Venezuela and said repression had increased since the weekend.
Machado, 58, said she had not spoken to Trump since 10 October, the day it was announced she had won the Nobel peace prize. However, she expressed gratitude for his actions against the 'narco-terrorist regime'. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump decided to back Rodríguez after CIA analysts briefed him that Machado and her electoral candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, would struggle to gain legitimacy.
The Washington Post reported the decision may have been personal, with Trump irritated that Machado accepted the prize. Asked if she would give the prize to Trump, Machado said she would 'love to be able to personally tell him that the Venezuelan people want to give it to him and share it with him.'
Trump has said he wants to work with Rodríguez and Maduro's former team, provided they submit to US demands on oil. Meanwhile, a decree signed by Maduro before his arrest declared a 'state of external commotion', ordering the search for anyone involved in supporting the US attack and suspending the right to public assembly.
