CNN:
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Friday that she is focused on an orderly transition of power in her country should President Nicolás Maduro leave power and that she is confident Venezuela’s police and armed forces would not oppose such a transition.
Speaking as the US government ramps up pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Machado said the crisis in her home country is a key national security consideration for the United States.
“It has become very clear that the Venezuelan conflict is absolutely a priority in matters of national security for the United States and in matters of hemispheric security,” Machado told reporters in Oslo, Norway, where she collected her Nobel Peace Prize this week.
The US administration has been working on day-after plans in the event Maduro is ousted, according to senior administration officials. CNN has previously reported that there have been informal conversations inside the US administration regarding Machado and fellow opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez leading a post-Maduro Venezuela.
“Maduro will leave power, whether it is negotiated or not negotiated,” Machado said Friday. “We are fundamentally focused on how we can ensure that it is an orderly, peaceful transition, where the results of the country’s reconstruction are felt as soon as possible by Venezuelans.”
“I am confident today that the vast majority of the Venezuelan armed forces and police, as soon as the transition begins, will obey orders, guidelines and instructions from superiors who will be appointed by the civil authority duly elected by Venezuelans,” she added.
Asked what role she might play in the US administration’s plans, Machado told CNN: “Not only the American government, I think many other governments around the world are preparing for a democratic transition in Venezuela for several reasons. One is because they realize that the largest migration crisis in the world today is certainly Venezuelans that have been forced to flee.”
