After Nicolas Maduro was taken to the United States, Venezuela’s opposition formally obtained what it had pursued for years: the regime’s central figure was removed. But within the first hours it became clear that Washington did not see a democratic transition as the operation’s main outcome.
As the article notes, in 2024 opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was barred from the election, and the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was not allowed to stand. Urrutia then went into exile, while Machado later traveled to Oslo, where she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
At the same time, Donald Trump publicly distanced himself from Machado, saying it would be very difficult for her to govern without support inside the country. According to Time, Politico, The New York Times and WSJ, the White House prefers to rely on figures from the previous regime, above all Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, viewing them as more predictable and better able to control the army, the oil sector and migration flows.
After Maduro’s capture, Machado said that a “hour of freedom” had arrived for Venezuela and urged supporters to carry the democratic transition through to the end.
Some US media outlets linked the tension between Trump and Machado to the Nobel Peace Prize she received last year. In an interview with Fox News, however, Machado said Trump had shown through his actions that he deserved the prize.
The opposition’s actual position remains extremely weak: its leaders cannot safely return to the country, and earlier attempts to turn international backing into domestic leverage, including the project of Juan Guaido, ended in failure. According to CNN, that experience has reinforced White House skepticism toward relying on the democratic opposition. Protests continue inside Venezuela, but remain limited, while the largest demonstrations are taking place among the diaspora abroad.