{"id":490193,"date":"2026-01-03T20:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T20:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/490193\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T20:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T20:26:15","slug":"venezuelan-opposition-leader-2025-nobel-peace-prize-winner-maria-corina-machado-poised-to-take-the-place-of-nicolas-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/490193\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan opposition leader, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado poised to take the place of Nicolas Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she and fellow candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez are poised to lead the country now that \u201cthe hour of freedom has arrived\u201d \u2014 but President Trump said ousted dictator\u00a0Nicolas Maduro\u2019s<\/a> second in command could take the job and make the embattled nation \u201cgreat again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Machado and\u00a0Gonz\u00e1lez, whose 2024 victory against Maduro was ignored by the dictator, are vying to \u201cimmediately\u201d lead the transitional government in the South American country.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power,\u201d Machado said in her first public comments Saturday.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says she and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez are\u00a0 poised to lead the country. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to restore order, release the political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

But President Trump surprisingly said during his press conference Saturday that Machado \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the support within or the respect within the country\u201d to become its next leader.<\/p>\n

He indicated that spoke with Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 who is to assume power after Maduro\u2019s arrest as per the Venezuelan constitution \u2014 and that she reassured her willingness \u201cto do what\u2019s necessary to make Venezuela great again.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez reportedly fled to Russia, but the country\u2019s foreign ministry denied she was there.<\/p>\n

Trump declared that the US would now take over running Venezuela after strongman Nicolas Maduro was captured \u201cin the dead of night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d Trump said at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort as he provided new details on the stunning military operation.<\/p>\n

Maria Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to run it, essentially\u201d through the transition, he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, the president said the US guidance would be to prevent another dictator from \u201c[taking] over where he left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts,\u00a0however, theorize that\u00a0Machado and her movement are best poised for the takeover.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s capture:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have the support of 70% of Venezuelans,\u201d Jorge Jraissati, president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital. \u201cThey would lead this transition period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US previously recognized\u00a0Gonz\u00e1lez as the country\u2019s legitimate leader after he defeated\u00a0Maduro<\/a>\u00a0by a more than 2-to-1 margin in the 2024 election. Gonz\u00e1lez ran in place of Machado after she was banned from running by the Maduro-run high court. Maduro ignored the election results and remained in power.<\/p>\n

Machado celebrated Maduro\u2019s capture Saturday.<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s Maduro speaks during a military ceremony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar\u2019s \u2018Sword of Peru\u2019 on November 25, 2025, in Caracas, Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come for popular sovereignty and national sovereignty to govern our country. We will restore order, free the political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home,\u201d Machado wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have fought for years, we have given everything, and it has been worth it. What had to happen is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her political advocacy, thanked the US for fulfilling its \u201cpromise to uphold the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

A column of smoke rises during multiple explosions in the early hours of the morning, in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2025. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

The opposition leader has been a strong ally of President Trump\u2019s \u2014 most recently\u00a0publicly lauding his recent seizure of a vessel transporting oil\u00a0<\/a>out of her home country as part of his plan to oust Maduro.<\/p>\n

She even dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump after being named the 2025 winner in October.<\/p>\n

Machado was picked for the award for her efforts to advance democracy \u201cin the face of ever-expanding authoritarianism in Venezuela\u201d despite serious threats to her life.<\/p>\n

She has been in hiding since the summer of 2024 when Maduro claimed victory for his third term in the highly contested election.<\/p>\n

In the months before Maduro\u2019s arrest, Machado indicated that her movement was prepared to take territorial and administrative control\u00a0of Venezuela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she and fellow candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez are poised to lead the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":490194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,92550,5199,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,221118,2969,32322,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-490193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-nicolas-maduro","14":"tag-nobel-peace-prize","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-venezuela","25":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115833050612622028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}