María Corina Machado backs US anti-narcotics operations against Maduro: 'To have peace you need freedom and strength'

María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, talked with journalist Bari Weiss and fully supports the anti-narcotics operations against Nicolás Maduro's regime ordered by President Donald Trump.

As Machado explained, the Trump administration is doing the right thing by pressuring Maduro through aggressive law enforcement, recalling that the dictator leads the Cartel de los Soles, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and maintains an indictment for drug trafficking in the Southern District of New York.

"There were widespread reports that the Trump administration wanted to force Maduro out, not by direct regime change, but basically by saying that the U.S. is engaged in formal armed conflict with drug cartels (...) what do you make of that approach? Do you think that that is a smart strategy?" Weiss asked.

Machado did not hesitate to give the strategy a thumbs up, explaining that Maduro is not a legitimate leader, but a drug trafficker who hijacked Venezuela's institutions: "Well, I have to say a few things first. This is not regime change because the change of the regime was already mandated by the people a year ago. So this is not about an international movement to remove a legitimate president. This is not the case. Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. He is the head of a narco-terrorist cartel. That is true. And that is killing not only Venezuelan people, but also American people and people from other countries intentionally."

"What's happening in Venezuela is that the cartel, the drug cartel, is in power, it has taken over everything. Our institutions, our resources, our territory, ports, airports, the military, planes, it's all under the control and power of the cartel. This has never, ever happened here in our hemisphere before," Machado insisted. "So we have been for years, Bari, demanding that the international community understand that Maduro is not a conventional dictator. That this is a criminal terrorist structure that is purposely destroying our society, our population."

"And finally, we're seeing that the United States is taking a law enforcement approach, which is correct. Why? Because these systems stay in power and are supported by the flows they get from criminal activities, not only drug trafficking, gold smuggling, arms smuggling, human trafficking, and the black oil market."

When asked directly about the Trump administration's counternarcotics strategy, Machado stated that she is "absolutely" in agreement with "dismantling the criminal, narco-terrorist cartel" led by Maduro.

During the conversation, Machado —who has been in hiding for more than ten months due to death threats against her— described that U.S. pressure against Nicolás Maduro would not be an imposition of "regime change," as some analysts point out, since Venezuelans already decided on a regime change on July 28, 2024, when diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez —Machado-backed opposition candidate— defeated dictator Nicolás Maduro by a margin of almost 40 points (67 % to 30 %), in an election that was altered by electoral authorities answering to the Chavista regime.

According to the electoral records that the Venezuelan opposition managed to recover, thanks to the electoral witnesses, Machado and her team demonstrated Gonzalez's victory both inside and outside Venezuela, with the U.S. and dozens of countries and international organizations ignoring the self-proclaimed triumph of Dictator Maduro.

Finally, when asked if Maduro would leave power due to U.S. pressure, Machado was optimistic.

"I have no doubt that Maduro is going to leave. As I said before, the cracks and fractures within the regime are growing as we speak. Every day, the very few that still support him, you know, the top brass or the financial enablers that are making an obscene amount of money with the hunger of Venezuela, start to realize that it's over," the opposition leader said.

"And, you know, we offered Maduro from day one, when we won the election, the possibility of a negotiated transition. And he refused and decided, as we mentioned, to go with all force and brutal repression against the people. Now, Maduro still has a chance to live peacefully. How long? We don't know. But he's the one. He's the one responding to the crisis. He's the one responsible for what's going on. He declared war against the Venezuelan people and against the international community. It was his decision. So now, we have to come to this point, because as I said, I've repeated this many times, you know, to have peace, you need freedom. In order to have freedom, you do need to have strength and war when you are facing a narco-terrorist organization, which is the case in Venezuela."