Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has said that "we are determined" to have the sovereign will of the Venezuelan population respected, and asserted that "our main ally" at this moment in the struggle is US President Donald Trump.
Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader, in an interview to Times Now broadcast on Friday, also said, "we can count on the Indian people for a peaceful transition to democracy and freedom in Venezuela".
She was awarded the 2025 prize by the Nobel Committee for the sustained campaign against the country's President Nicolás Maduro Moros.
The Committee on its website says that the prize was "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy".
In the interview, she was asked about the expectations by many that President Trump might have received the Nobel prize for his efforts this year.
"This is a prize for the Venezuelan people, it is a prize that honours the courage, resilience, strength and love that Venezuelan has been demonstrating, fighting for so long all these years," she said.
"Our main ally at this moment is President Trump, so it is a matter of fairness. And, I do think that all around the world, we are seeing the results of a strategy to achieve peace through strength," Machado said.
On a query on America's ties with India and also the ties of the US with Pakistan in the context of the recent India-Pakistan conflict, the Nobel winner said she "fully respects the efforts of Indian people who want to live in peace, and I know there are people in Pakistan who want the same".
"The fact that President Trump was able to help stop this conflict from escalating, I think it was a great step," she said.
Machado further said "we can have in India, a great ally".
"From our perspective and from Venezuela, I want to think that we can have in India, a great ally, not only for this stage in which we need your voices, as a great democracy in Asia, to speak out for the rights of the Venezuelan people." Once the country transitions, "we seek greater opportunities" for India to invest in Venezuela in various sectors, the opposition leader said.
Machado was born in Venezuela in 1967.
She said the people of Venezuela have been fighting for over 20 years, against the "terrible tyranny" that has committed "crimes against humanity, that has destroyed Venezuela that used to be one of the wealthiest nations in the Western Hemisphere".
Machado asserted, "We are determined to have the sovereign will of our population respected, and that is going to happen very soon." "And, we know, we can count on the Indian people for a peaceful transition to democracy and freedom in Venezuela," she added.
Asked how she reacted after learning that she was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize this year, Machado said she was still trying to understand what does it mean. "Of course, it was an absolute surprise." The fact that the international community and the Nobel Committee "recognised this struggle is absolutely huge" and it is going to be a "very significant boost for the final stage that we are in, right now, moving into a peaceful and orderly transition", she said.
"And, I am still trying to process what it means for our country, our people and certainly for my life, rest of my life and the responsibility that it involves." Machado said, "we don't want war (with a government), we want to live in peace and freedom".
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