Venezuelan opposition leader Machado vows to return home 'as soon as possible'

WASHINGTON: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Monday she plans to return home "as soon as possible," and rejected the authority of the interim president who has replaced Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado was speaking to US broadcaster Fox News, her first public comments beyond a social media post since the US military forcibly removed Maduro from power on Saturday.




"I'm planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible," Machado said, speaking from an undisclosed location.

The opposition figure also openly rejected the country's interim president Delcy Rodriguez, saying she "is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking."

Rodriguez, who has signaled her willingness to cooperate with Washington, was Venezuela's vice president under Maduro.

Machado said Rodriguez is "rejected" by the Venezuelan people, and voters were on the opposition's side.

"In free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it," Machado said.

Machado also vowed to "turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas" and "dismantle all these criminal structures" that have harmed her countrymen, promising to "bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home."

US President Donald Trump, however, has downplayed the possibility of Machado coming to power, saying she did not not command the "respect" to run the country.

Trump has said he wants to work with Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro's former team -- provided that they submit to US demands on oil.

On Monday, Machado offered to give her Nobel prize -- an award Trump has long publicly coveted -- to the US president.

"The Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people, certainly want to give it to him and share it with him. What he has done, as I said, is historic, it's a huge step towards a democratic transition," she told Fox News.

Machado said she had not spoken to Trump since October 10, however.