Maria Corina Machado has a plan for democracy in Venezuela
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Many Venezuelans expected Machado would eventually become their president once authoritarian ruler Nicolas Maduro was ousted from power. But Maduro has been out of power and in a U.S. prison since January, and Machado is still on the outside looking in. Host Mary Louise Kelly spoke with Maria Corina Machado about her plans to return to Venezuela, her relationship with President Trump and the burden Machado’s political career has placed on her own family.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's considered this from NPR, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, my conversation |
| 0:08.8 | with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Carino Machado. I had interviewed Machado before, |
| 0:15.1 | once when she was in hiding because of security threats from the authoritarian regime of |
| 0:20.0 | Nicholas Maduro. |
| 0:21.3 | And then we spoke a second time via Zoom. |
| 0:24.4 | This time, I was able to question her in person, in our studios in Washington. |
| 0:29.4 | We talked about many topics, including what it was like to be a political leader in hiding. |
| 0:35.0 | It was quite a challenge, certainly in a personal, human way, |
| 0:39.2 | not being able to touch or hug or see someone personally during a year and a half. |
| 0:45.6 | But at the same time, how do I keep working? How do we turn these challenging, very extreme conditions, risky conditions into a possibility to grow, to grow |
| 0:59.5 | organization, to grow our communication. |
| 1:01.9 | I wanted to speak with Machado again because of the tricky position in which she finds |
| 1:07.6 | herself. Last December, she left Venezuela in secret to accept the Nobel |
| 1:12.8 | Peace Prize, a recognition of her work to promote democracy in her home country. Then, |
| 1:18.5 | in January, U.S. military forces swooped in, captured Maduro, ousted him from power. Now he |
| 1:25.8 | sits in an American prison, but Machado remains outside the country. |
| 1:30.7 | Meanwhile, Maduro's former vice president, Delci Rodriguez, is in charge and enjoying President |
| 1:36.1 | Trump's support. There's a spirit in Venezuela that they haven't had in many, many years, |
| 1:40.6 | and the big companies are coming in now, and they're building these giant rigs because |
| 1:44.9 | there's a lot of oil in Venezuela, a lot of other things do, and a lot of great people. And we have |
| 1:50.6 | people in charge that are doing a fantastic job. Machado, the opposition leader, says she plans to |
| 1:56.4 | go back to Venezuela soon. And she vows not to rest until Venezuela is again a democracy. |
... |
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