Maria Corina Machado says she 'absolutely supports' Trump’s strategy in Venezuela

OSLO, NORWAY: Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado has openly embraced and praised President Donald Trump’s strategy against Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

Machado expressed strong support for Trump’s increasing pressure campaign on the regime, including sanctions, military operations, and seizure of Venezuelan oil assets.

Maria Corina Machado backs Trump's stand against Nicolas Maduro

In an interview aired on Sunday, December 14, on CBS News’ 'Face the Nation', when asked if she supports the US increasing sanctions on Venezuelan individuals and the US potentially conducting more seizures of vessels, like the oil tanker last week, Machado told host Margaret Brennan, “Look, I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy." 

"And we, the Venezuelan people, are very grateful to him and to his administration, because I believe he is a champion of freedom in this hemisphere,” she added.

Machado noted that she dedicated, in part, the award to Trump “because I think that he finally has put Venezuela in where it should be, in terms of a priority for the United States national security.” 

“And we do support these actions, because, Margaret, we are facing not a conventional dictatorship," she expressed. 

"This is a very complex criminal structure that has turned Venezuela into a safe haven of international crime and terrorist activities, starting with Russia, Iran, Cuba, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels operating freely and directed in partnership with Maduro and his regime,” Machado stressed, speaking from Oslo, where she was to collect her Nobel Peace Prize award.

Maria Corina Machado calls for global pressure against Nicolas Maduro

When asked if she wants to see more pressure from the US, Machado said, “We want every legal action through law enforcement… Not only from the United States, also from other Caribbean, Latin American, and European countries that further block the illegal activities of the regime.”

“Why? Because we need to increase the cost of staying in power by force. Once you arrive to that point in which the cost of staying in power is higher than the cost of leaving power, the regime will fall apart,” she expressed. “And it’s the moment where we, you know, advance into a negotiated transition.”

Maria Corina Machado appears publicly after nearly a year of hiding

Machado has been living in hideouts in her own country for nearly a year and wasn't seen in public until last week in Oslo, where her daughter accepted her peace prize on her behalf.

Machado was barred from running against Maduro last year after winning the opposition primary and endorsing a lesser-known candidate widely seen as her stand-in.

Maduro refused to leave power after he claimed victory, but the government’s election data was dismissed by experts purporting to show Maduro as the winner as “mathematically and statistically” impossible.