Nobel Prize winner Machado says Venezuela is in ‘chaos’ under current regime : NPR

Venezuelan Opposition Leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Corina Machado told NPR Weekend Edition on Sunday that her country is in chaos and called for the removal of Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.

Speaking while still hiding within Venezuela's borders, the far-right leader denounced Maduro as an illegitimate authoritarian who has forced his way into Venezuela. third term despite overwhelming evidence that his administration had rigged the vote.

“I want to be clear: Regime change has already been sanctioned by the Venezuelan people on July 28, 2024,” Machado said during an interview with NPR's Aisha Rascoe on Saturday, referring to last year's controversial, closely watched election.

“The current version of the regime is that if Maduro leaves, chaos will come to Venezuela. This is an absolute lie,” she said. “Venezuela is in deep, utter chaos right now.”

Machado, who was banned from the Maduro regime, has backed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez in the race to lead crisis-ridden Venezuela. political and economic crisis it forced more than one fifth its inhabitants flee the country.

Machado has been one of the most staunch critics of the powerful United Socialist Party of Venezuela (UPVV) since it first came to power in the late 1990s. Former Venezuelan National Assembly member Machado was fired upon, targeted by federal prosecutors, barred from running for office and forced into hiding by the government of Maduro, who succeeded PSUV founder Hugo Chavez in 2013.

“We won the presidential election in a landslide and we proved it by winning over 85% of the initial results. The whole world knows this. Even Maduro’s allies know he has failed,” Machado said.

Several Latin American countries, along with the United States, agree that Maduro manipulated the electoral system to maintain control of the Venezuelan government. The country is riddled with corruption and under the leadership of Madurosaw the country plunge into economic collapse and suppression of free speech.

The Trump administration has accused Maduro of running a drug cartel and ordered lethal strikes on boats he said were carrying drugs. The US State Department is offering a reward of up to 50 million dollars to obtain information that will lead to the arrest of Maduro.

Machado repeated claims that Maduro was acting as the head of a cartel and blamed him for the boat strikes and broader international hostility toward Venezuela.

“[The cartel] are deliberately destabilizing the region and undermining institutions in the United States because they have turned Venezuela into a safe haven for the enemies of the United States – Iran, China, Russia, Hezbollah, Hamas and others,” she said.

“So Maduro declared this war, not us.”

When asked whether she would support a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela to overthrow Maduro, Machado declined to speculate on whether President Trump would authorize such action, but called Trump a valuable ally in recognizing the “threat” Maduro poses as a leader.

“You can’t have peace without freedom, and you can’t have freedom without power,” Machado said.

“When you face a criminal structure, they use violence, all the resources of the Venezuelan people, against innocent people. People who are now in prison are being tortured, persecuted and killed,” she said. “We need to stop this because we are talking about saving lives and the regime needs to understand that impunity is over.”

Machado had devoted her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, whom she supported and directly called on to help Venezuela on the path to democracy.

Asked if she did it in hopes that it would inspire Trump to help oust Maduro, Machado said: “I dedicated it to the people of Venezuela and to President Trump because I think it’s the right thing to do.”

“I think this is true not only for what he has done in recent months to resolve long and painful conflicts around the world, but also precisely for what he is doing now for America,” she said, adding that if and when Maduro is overthrown, she hopes to see the fall of other repressive regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua.