Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado confirmed this Saturday in Panama City that she maintains her aspiration for the Presidency of Venezuela and that her goal is to achieve free and transparent elections within seven to nine months, within the framework of a meeting with the main opposition figures.
Machado, the favorite in the polls, has defended the need for a profound renewal of the National Electoral Council and the creation of a new electoral registry that allows more than five million Venezuelans with the right to vote to register and participate without obstacles.
"The transition to democracy through free and fair presidential elections, where all Venezuelans inside and outside the country vote," she stated at a press conference in Panama City, where she traveled on Thursday, May 21.
The opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate has also highlighted the role of Edmundo González Urrutia, who participated remotely from Madrid during the meeting, and reiterated that she will be a candidate for the head of the Venezuelan state.
"I will be a candidate, but there may be others, of course (...) I would love to compete with everyone, with everyone who wants to be a candidate," she emphasized.
In the Panamanian capital, María Corina Machado met with all members of the Mesa de la Unidad or Plataforma de la Unidad. Prominent opposition figures such as Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma, Andrés Guanipa, Rodrigo Cabezas, César Pérez Vivas, Biagio Pilieri, Delsa Solórzano, Noel Álvarez, and Roberto Enríquez, among others, sat around the table.
In her speech, she explained that the presence of the unitary platform's representatives in Panama responds to the preparation for the transition phase in Venezuela. Following Nicolás Maduro's removal on January 3 by the United States Government, the plan promoted by Donald Trump is articulated in three stages: stabilization, economic recovery, and transition. For this reason, the opposition leader has called for patience.
"What is happening in Venezuela is a very complex, delicate process, where criminal structures are being dismantled," he stated. "One of the proposals with yesterday's meeting with the Platform and with the meeting with the other colleagues we will have in these hours is: we have to achieve this great alliance of the country. But yes, of the people. This is not a political agreement of parties to impose."
Regarding her return to Venezuela, Machado has confirmed that she is in conversations with the White House to make it viable and that it will happen "soon."
"Obviously coordinated with the government of the United States, we have been discussing it, they are our main allies."