Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader, said Thursday that the United States backs a presidential election in 2027 as part of a democratic transition. She made the remarks in Caracas after returning from 10 months in exile.
Machado cited US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as having "laid out a sequence of steps for moving toward a democratic transition that includes presidential elections in 2027." She called the transition to democracy "irreversible" and described the election date as "the date of liberation."
She thanked Trump for actions on January 3 that she said opened "the floodgate to freedom," referring to the US capture of former President Nicolas Maduro, who faces US drug trafficking and torture charges and denies them.
Machado said her priorities include dismantling Venezuela's repressive system and securing the release of thousands of political prisoners. She denied having contact with interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who announced separately that "there will be elections" in Venezuela without specifying a date.
Machado, who was barred from contesting the 2024 presidential election, backed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, whose supporters said he won by a wide margin. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner.
Machado criticized a US-Venezuela oil deal under which Venezuela is expected to supply 20 percent of its oil reserves to the United States. "This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants," she said.
The source notes that Washington's position presents a tension: it has said Machado has every right to be in Venezuela but has also praised interim President Rodriguez.