Nobel laureate Maria Machado says she should be Venezuela’s leader

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Collina Machado says she “absolutely” should be in charge of the country after the United States ousted President Nicolas Maduro last week.

“We are ready and willing to serve our people in accordance with our mandate,” Machado told BBC America’s partner CBS.

She thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for his “leadership and courage” after U.S. troops attacked Caracas and arrested Maduro, but said no one trusted the deposed president’s allies, who had been appointed interim leader.

Machado and her opposition movement claimed victory in the disputed 2024 election, but Trump refused to back her, saying she lacked popular support.

The former lawmaker, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, described the weekend’s U.S. military action in Venezuela as “an important step toward restoring prosperity, rule of law and democracy to Venezuela.”

She said she had not spoken to Trump this year but expressed gratitude to him for deposing Maduro.

“President Trump’s leadership and courage in bringing Nicolás Maduro to face justice is tremendous,” she told CBS.

Despite her gestures, the U.S. president has publicly denied that Machado is a credible successor to Maduro.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult for her to be the leader,” Trump said of Machado at a press conference days ago.

“She doesn’t get support or respect at home. She’s a very good woman, but she doesn’t get respect.”

But Machado said no one trusts Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s interim leader and Maduro’s former vice president.

The opposition leader told CBS that Rodriguez was “one of the main architects of the repression of innocent people” in the South American country.

“Everyone in Venezuela and abroad is well aware of who she is and the role she plays,” Machado said.

Although Rodriguez, 56, faces U.S. sanctions over her ministerial role in Maduro’s government, U.S. officials have not charged her with any crime.

Rodriguez was sworn in Monday just days after U.S. special forces breached Venezuelan security and arrested Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rodriguez pushed back against Trump’s assertion that the United States controls Venezuela.

“The Venezuelan government rules our country and no one else can rule our country,” she said in a televised address. “There are no outside agents running Venezuela.”