- In statements to La Patilla, the opposition leader said that “there can be no transition until the political prisoners are released.”
- She defends the U.S. military operation: “International law exists to protect people, not those who hold weapons and steal resources.”
14ymedio, Madrid January 8, 2026 — María Corina Machado is convinced that Chavismo is at the beginning of a transition that must be “as short and as fast as possible.” She told the independent Venezuelan outlet La Patilla that “The regime is being instructed to dismantle itself,” she said.
Among the opposition leader’s priorities, she said, are the release of political prisoners, an essential condition for the start of that transition, along with the restoration of the rights to assembly, expression, and association. “There can be no transition until the political prisoners are released. That is the first thing that has to happen in the next few hours,” she maintained. Her remarks, however, clash with what U.S. President Donald Trump has said so far. On Monday, when asked by the press about the political prisoners, he said: “We haven’t gotten to that. Right now what we want is to fix the oil, fix the country, bring it back, and have elections.”
This is another point of disagreement. María Corina Machado told La Patilla that there is already an elected president, Edmundo González Urrutia, whose mandate must be respected. The former diplomat, now exiled in Spain, obtained around 70% of the vote in the July 28, 2024 election, according to the tally sheets the opposition managed to obtain and present, an obligation Maduro had undertaken with international observers but never fulfilled. Machado, who was to be the presidential candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform but was barred, told the outlet that this electoral result “must be respected.”
María Corina Machado told La Patilla that there is already an elected president, Edmundo González Urrutia, whose mandate must be respected.
The U.S. recognized González as president of Venezuela in November 2024, under the presidency of Joe Biden. However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has disqualified last year’s elections, arguing that they were illegitimate because Machado’s candidacy was barred. “María Corina was not on the ballot in the last election; Edmundo was, so it was an illegitimate election, and therefore he is not a legitimate president,” he told the press, and he ruled out holding new elections in the short term. “It is premature at this moment. There is a lot of work ahead,” he said.
In an interview last Tuesday with NBC, Trump also ruled out holding a vote in Venezuela within the 30-day timeframe provided for in the Constitution. “First we have to fix the country. Elections cannot be held. There is no way people can vote,” he said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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