PANAMA CITY — The opposition leader María Corina Machado assured this Saturday that the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, will leave power and that the great challenge that Venezuelans have is “to build the ethical and liberal pillars that will make Venezuela never fall under communism and tyranny.”
Before a crowd of Venezuelans gathered on the central Cuba Avenue in the Panamanian capital, Machado gave a speech full of emotion and focused on the message of maintaining unity and coordination that, he assured, gave the opposition forces victory in the elections of July 28, 2024.
Machado recalled that Panama safeguards the voting records of the Venezuelan opposition and assures that they demonstrate the presidential victory with “more than 70%” of Edmundo González Urrutia, a triumph not recognized by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, controlled by the ruling party and which proclaimed the questioned re-election of Nicolás Maduro – captured by the US last January on drug trafficking charges – without showing the votes that prove it.
The opposition “has already defeated the tyranny and what remains is to displace it (…) Delcy Rodríguez”, Maduro’s vice president and who has assumed the government on an interim basis, “is leaving, one day before, one day after, that is not in doubt,” according to Machado.
“We want to vote”
“We are going to complete the transition to democracy; we are going to have free elections in which all of you will be able to vote,” Machado said before the crowd of Venezuelans living in that nation, who responded with the harangue: “we want to vote, we want to vote.”
And in this context, Machado asserted, “the great challenge” that lies ahead “is that Venezuela that emerges: to build those republican, ethical, liberal pillars that will make Venezuela never bow its head again to tyranny.”
And he predicted that what is coming is hard. “Today there is absolute clarity that there is a higher objective and all legitimate aspirations are subordinated to that higher objective which is the liberation of Venezuela and the construction of a nation (…) What is coming is hard,” added the leader, who called on all her compatriots to return to Venezuela to relive it.
Announce your candidacy
In a press conference prior to the rally, Machado announced that she will be a presidential candidate in the “clean and free” elections that are scheduled to take place in Venezuela as part of the three-phase plan established by the United States after the capture of Maduro on January 3.
“There is an objective here and it is to liberate our country, a purpose, the transition to democracy through free and fair presidential elections where all Venezuelans vote (…) here today we ratify that purpose,” said Machado.
“I will be a candidate, but there may be others. I would love to compete with everyone, with everyone who wants to be a candidate (…) we will have clean and free elections,” Machado responded to the question of whether he would present himself as a presidential candidate in the elections.
His return to Venezuela
Before his compatriots and also before the press, Machado said that he will soon return to Venezuela, which he will do in coordination with the United States.
“There is clarity that my return has a purpose: to accompany and strengthen the plan that the Secretary of State (Marco Rubio) has presented in its three stages and to prepare for the fourth phase, that is ours, of the reconstruction of our country. Yes, and it will be soon. Each thing in its time,” he declared to journalists.
