The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has publicly highlighted the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, after she published a column in the American newspaper 'New York Post' in which she insists on the urgency of returning to Venezuela. Although the president has avoided going into details about the conditions of that eventual return, he has expressed his confidence in the transition process that the South American country is experiencing, assuring that "everything is going to be fine."
When questioned by journalists about whether he supports the return of the opposition leader to Caracas, Trump has limited himself to emphasizing her figure and trajectory. "I will say one thing. She is an excellent woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize because she knew I had earned it, and she is an excellent woman. Everything is going to be fine," the occupant of the White House has stated in a brief intervention before the media.
Trump's statements come after the dissemination of an opinion article signed by Machado herself in the aforementioned newspaper, where she argues that her current responsibility is to return to her country to "accompany" the Venezuelan citizenry and "peacefully channel the growing social tensions." In the text, the opposition leader emphasizes in the New York newspaper the importance of reaching a broad national pact between civilians and military that allows for the reconstruction of democracy after the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro, executed on January 3 under the Trump Administration.
In that forum, Machado proposes that the "next strategic step" to solidify this historic change must be the setting of a date to hold presidential elections next year, along with a roadmap that includes the essential reforms for the elections to be "free and fair."
In line with the recent demands of the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Venezuelan leader argues that a defined electoral calendar will offer the population "a horizon to organize" and provide "certainty" and institutionalism to the transition process.
At the same time, Machado uses her article to address the geopolitical and economic interests of Washington, proposing to transform Venezuela into the "strongest" partner of the United States in the hemisphere. The opposition leader claims that, with the consolidation of a true rule of law and the arrival of about 200 billion dollars (178.3 billion euros) in private investment, the Caribbean country could produce "more than 5 million barrels" of crude oil per day, becoming a reliable energy supplier for the United States without involving "a single dollar from American taxpayers".