WASHINGTON: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said that 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.
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 signalled 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 per cent 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." — AFP
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