The president spoke for nearly an hour Saturday about the reasons that led to the massive military operation to arrest him and bring him to New York, where he faces trafficking charges.
As he stated, the main goals of the operation were to end the cooperation of the Venezuelan government with the drug cartels, as well as to take control of the country’s huge oil reserves from American companies – he even said the word “oil” 20 times during his speech. One word he did not mention once was “democracy”.
When Maduro lost the 2024 presidential election, he contested the result and refused to hand over power. Venezuela’s legally elected president, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, has been living in exile in Spain ever since. A central figure in the opposition remains Maria Corina, who led the successful election campaign against Maduro in 2024 despite being barred from running.
Machado has often been described as the politician with the most popular legitimacy to lead the country. However, for a long time she lived in hiding in Venezuela, until last month she went to Oslo, where she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado dedicated the award to Trump while also expressing her support for the controversial US attacks on Venezuelan vessels. Nevertheless, , who instead of insisting on the installation of the democratically elected opposition, chose to support the Maduro regime’s second in command, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
“He has no respect within the country”
Asked Saturday if he thought Machado could lead the country after Maduro was ousted, Trump said that would be “very difficult,” noting that “she’s a very good woman, but she doesn’t have the respect within the country.”
As the New York Times reports, even before the US lightning raid on Caracas, Trump had made the decision not to support Machado. According to five people familiar with the decision-making process cited by the US paper, the move was based on assessments by US intelligence that the opposition would struggle to govern, but on the strained relationship between Machado and top White House officials.
The Nobel and its role
According to sources who spoke to the Washington Post, the US president lost interest in supporting her after she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, which was considered “”.
“If she had rejected it saying, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump,’ she would be the president of Venezuela today,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity.
At the same time, according to the New York Times, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had opposed supporting the opposition, believing that doing so would further destabilize the country and require a greater military presence, a view supported by classified CIA intelligence. The Wall Street Journal revealed that a US intelligence assessment concluded that close allies of Maduro, including Rodriguez, who was sworn in as president on Monday, could ensure short-term stability through an interim government.
The analysis reportedly influenced the US president’s decision to promote Rodriguez over Machado, who is believed to lack the support of the country’s armed forces and other elites. Trump is also believed to have been swayed towards Machado by the fact that she was the choice of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
However, last Sunday Rubio told the American network NBC that the election is “not the first priority” of the US in Venezuela, but ending the drug trade, the presence of Iran and Hezbollah and the use of the oil industry for the benefit of US adversaries.
