Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, in a tacit endorsement of US pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, has called on the world to cut the flow of money from drugs, arms and human trafficking that she claimed were propping up the country’s authoritarian regime.
Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Wednesday, on Thursday said she was “very hopeful” that Venezuela would be free, adding: “It’s going to be soon.”
Asked about US forces seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, which attorney-general Pam Bondi said was transporting sanctioned oil, Machado answered: “Some people talk about an invasion in Venezuela, and I answer that Venezuela has already been invaded.”