María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan Opposition leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this week, vowed on Thursday to bring democracy to her country and end the government of President Nicolás Maduro as she re-emerged on the global stage after more than a year in hiding.
Machado held a news conference in Oslo alongside Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway as the Trump administration dramatically increased its pressure on Maduro. On Wednesday, the US seized a Venezuelan oil tanker off the coast of the South American country.
Machado has been a steadfast supporter of President Trump’s pressure campaign against Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of flooding the US with drugs and criminals.
On Thursday, Machado dodged a reporter’s question about her views on the threat of US military action in Venezuela. But she repeated the Trump administration’s talking points on Maduro’s government, comparing him to a criminal mastermind engaged in a vast array of illegal activities in partnership with America’s adversaries.
“Venezuela has already been invaded,” she said. “We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents, we have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, operating freely in accordance with the regime. We have the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels.”
Venezuela has economic and security ties with Iranian, Chinese and Russian companies, and sells most of its oil to China, but there has been no conclusive evidence that Hezbollah and Hamas are present in Venezuela.
Maduro’s largest corporate partner is Chevron, the American energy company, which has continued to export Venezuelan oil to the US despite Trump’s military escalation.
In response to questions about the seizure of the oil tanker, Machado said that she supported cutting the funds of Maduro’s government. She added that he finances himself with gold smuggling, human trafficking, drugs and illegal oil sales.
New York Times News Service