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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado “doesn’t have the support” to lead her country in the wake of Nicholas Maduro’s ousting, President Trump has said.
President Trump also said Machado was not consulted in advance about the military operation to remove Maduro.
“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort hours after the attack.
“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
President Trump instead insisted that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez would be Maduro’s successor. Trump said he would work with her and the US will “run” Venezuela until there is a peaceful transfer of power.
“I just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what she thinks is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said.
“Very simple.”
In a televised speech, Rodríguez dismissed Trump’s remarks, saying Maduro is the country’s “only president.“
In the aftermath of Maduro’s capture, Machado said the “hour of freedom has arrived.”
“Today we are ready to enforce our mandate and take power,” Machado said in a letter shared on X.
“Let us remain vigilant, active and organized until the Democratic Transition is realized. A transition that needs ALL of us.”
Machado, who currently resides in Europe, pledged her support to Edmundo González Urrutia, who lost to Maduro in the 2024 election, which is widely regarded to have been rigged in the dictator’s favour.
She said Urrutia must be “recognized as Commander in Chief of the National Armed Forces by all officers and soldiers.”
On Saturday night, Maduro was seen making a “perp walk” at DEA headquarters in New York.
Maduro wore black sweats and a black hat as he clutched a water bottle while being escorted through the Chelsea facility before being taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
As he walked, he wished agents a “Happy New Year.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured from their home in a stunning nighttime raid operation in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas early on Saturday morning.
The couple were taken on board the USS Iwo Jima, in the Caribbean, and from there travelled to the US to face federal narco-terrorism charges and other offenses in the Southern District of New York.
When they arrived at the DEA building in Brooklyn, they were greeted by hundreds of revelers celebrating their arrest.
“It’s such a joy to see the dictator fall, but the regime hasn’t fallen yet,” Venezuelan national Ronny Chirinos, who came to New York three years ago due to Maduro’s regime, told The New York Post.
“I want everything to fall. That there is no one left.”
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear in court as soon as Monday.
