‘Maduro Capture Is a Huge Step for Humanity’: Nobel Laureate Machado Praises Trump but Faces White House Snub
The Venezuelan opposition leader praised Trump’s role in removing Nicolás Maduro, even as the White House ruled out backing her accession to power.
Venezuela’s opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, praised President Trump’s capture of Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, calling it a “huge step for humanity.”
Speaking to Fox News on Monday evening, Mrs. Machado said January 3rd, when Mr. Maduro was captured by U.S. Special forces, “will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny. It’s a milestone. And it’s not only huge for the Venezuelan people and our future. I think it’s a huge step for humanity, for freedom, and for human dignity.”
“Let me be very clear. As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it. And a lot of people, most people said it was impossible to achieve what he has just done on Saturday, January 3rd. So, if I believe he deserved it in October, imagine now. I think he has proven to the world what he means,” she added.
Mrs. Machado, who said she is planning to go back to Venezuela “as soon as possible,” disclosed that she hasn’t spoken to Mr. Trump since October 10.
Mr. Trump has, however, refused to back Mrs. Machado and her allies in the wake of Mr. Maduro’s removal from power, saying “she doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Senior White House aide Stephen Miller echoed Mr. Trump on Monday, dismissing the idea of installing Mrs. Machado as president of Venezuela.
“It would be absurd and preposterous for us to suddenly fly her into the country and to put her in charge,” Mr. Miller said.
A former national security adviser to Mr. Trump, John Bolton, said it was a “major mistake” for Washington not work with Mrs. Machado, and that the Trump administration threw the opposition leader “under the bus.”
“The Venezuelan people, who voted overwhelmingly for the surrogate candidate that was put in for Machado (Edmundo González Urrutia), are wondering: ‘Does the United States not trust or not trust the opposition?’,” Mr. Bolton told CNN.
The president meanwhile downplayed the prospects of elections in the near future, telling NBC that America has to “fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote.”
“No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have — we have to nurse the country back to health,” he said when asked if elections could happen in the next month.
