Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said the country is moving towards the 2027 presidential election, which is envisaged under a US plan, DW reports.
It was her first public appearance since returning from 10 months in exile.
Calling the transition to democracy “irreversible”, Machado said: “US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has set out a sequence of steps for a democratic transition, which includes holding presidential elections in 2027.”
“The election date is the date of liberation,” the opposition figure said in Caracas, after returning home following 10 months in exile.
Machado also confirmed that her priorities include dismantling the country’s repressive system and freeing thousands of political prisoners. She denied having had any contact with interim president Delcy Rodríguez.
Shortly before Machado’s public remarks, Rodríguez announced that “elections will take place” in Venezuela, without specifying a date.
Machado, who is known for having “awarded” US President Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, thanked Trump on 3 January for actions that led to the “opening of the floodgates to freedom” in Venezuela. She was referring to the detention of former president Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing charges in the United States over drug trafficking and torture, which he denies.
However, Machado criticised a major oil deal struck between Washington and Caracas earlier this year, under which Venezuela is to supply 20% of its oil reserves to the United States.
- Earlier, Trump said that Venezuela should be made the 51st state and that a governor should be elected there instead of a president.