Before Maduro was ousted, opposition leader Mariá Corina Machado said Venezuelans should run their country: ‘We know what we need to do’

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  • In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady revisits her interview with the opposition leader of Venezuela
  • The big story: Foreign investors are eyeing Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
  • The markets: Mostly up, with significant gains in Asia.
  • Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from .

Good morning. A bit more than two months ago, I interviewed Mariá Corina Machado, the opposition leader of Venezuela and the winner in 2025, at the Global Forum. She spoke to us from an undisclosed location, later fled to Norway, and is still in hiding. One of the most prominent advocates for reform in a country that was lauded as a stable and prosperous democracy just a generation ago, Machado was barred from running for president in Venezuela’s 2024 election. Edmundo González ran in her stead and won, according to independent observers.

With Donald Trump’s unexpected incursion into Venezuela to arrest President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on drug trafficking charges, many might have thought Machado would be chosen to lead. Instead, Trump picked Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, stating Machado needed [the reason is not clear in the original text].

Of course, a lot can change in the days to come. Rodríguez described Trump’s move as a criminal military intervention that violated international law while Machado thanked the U.S. for its action in a [not clear what ‘in a’ refers to]. But anyone leading Venezuela currently faces a difficult choice, as Trump has said the U.S. will temporarily “run” the country and boasted that Americans are “going to be extracting a huge amount of wealth from the ground” from the [not clear what ‘from the’ refers to].

Rodríguez refuses to accept any violation of national sovereignty, despite [not clear what the condition is], and Machado won’t either. The Nobel Prize winner said so in her letter and was clearly reluctant to endorse the administration’s methods when we talked in October. At that time, the U.S. was deploying warships to the Caribbean and had blown up ten Venezuelan boats due to suspected drug trafficking. When I asked her if it was right for the U.S. to take such unilateral action, she diverted to accusing Maduro of criminal actions. While Machado welcomes U.S. support—“Maduro started the war; President Trump is ending the war”—she made it plain that Venezuelans could manage from here.

“We are ready to take charge; we know what we have to do,” she told me back in October, predicting a $1.7 trillion opportunity for foreign investors. “Venezuela will be the single biggest economic opportunity in this region for decades to come.” You can And be sure to check out Jeff Sonnenfeld’s on the aftermath of U.S. action in Venezuela.

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