Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said in an interview airing Sunday that she'll be her country's president, but she stressed the need for electoral democracy after the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.
"I will be president when the time comes," she told "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan, CBS News reports.
"But it doesn't matter. That should be decided in elections by the Venezuelan people," she added.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who gave her medal to President Donald Trump last month, was banned in 2024 from running against Maduro and instead supported former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, who was recognized as the legitimate winner of the election.
"Maduro was afraid [of] running against me, and he thought Edmundo was not a threat, because nobody knew who he was," Machado said.
"And in less than three months, we managed to [get] the whole country supporting him, because this is [a] matter of freedom," she added.
Maduro, however, remained in power as allegations spread that the results of the election were rigged to keep him in office.
It's not clear when the next presidential election will be held in Venezuela, which for now is being run by interim President Delcy Rodriguez and other remnants of the Maduro regime.
Maduro and his wife are in jail in New York City, and Trump told reporters that the current Venezuelan leadership is "working with us so well."
Trump has been dismissive of Machado taking power of Venezuela, saying in the hours after Maduro's arrest that "she's a very nice woman but she doesn't have the respect."
But after Machado gave her Nobel medal to Trump while recognizing his "historic" action of removing Maduro, Trump said, "Maybe we can get her involved in some way."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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