CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition leader María Corina Machado plans to return to Venezuela whether or not President Nicolás Maduro is ousted, saying Thursday that his government is at its weakest point because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “decisive” actions.
Machado’s statements to reporters came hours after she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months, following her arrival in Norway’s capital, Oslo, where her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf on Wednesday.
“I think that the actions of President Trump have been decisive to reach where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker,” she told reporters. “Because before, the regime thought it had impunity …. Now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching.”
The politician, however, sidestepped questions on whether a U.S. military intervention is necessary to remove Maduro from power. She told reporters that she would return to Venezuela “when we believe the security conditions are right, and it won’t depend on whether or not the regime leaves.”
Machado arrived in Oslo hours after Wednesday’s prize ceremony and made her first public appearance early Thursday, emerging from a hotel balcony and waving to an emotional crowd of supporters. She had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters during a protest in Caracas.
Machado left Venezuela at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis, with the Trump administration carrying out a deadly military operation in the Caribbean and threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. The White House has said the operation, which has killed 80 people, is meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But many, including analysts, U.S. members of Congress and Maduro himself, see the operation as an effort to end his hold on power. The opposition has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
Machado on Thursday called on governments to ex