An alliance of Venezuelan opposition parties has once again thrown its weight behind exiled Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado as its leader. Members of the Unitary Democratic Platform, known as PUD, made the decision at a meeting in Caracas on Sunday, and the group also renewed its call for free elections in the country.
The move adds pressure on the authorities to allow Machado to come home. She has lived abroad since leaving Venezuela last December to receive her Nobel prize, and the government has yet to set a date for a new presidential vote.
PUD sets out 14 proposals for democratic transition
In its Sunday statement, the coalition pledged to “recognise and support the leadership of Maria Corina Machado.” The document also contained 14 proposals for a democratic transition. Among them were freedom for political parties, the release of all political prisoners and the safe return of people who went into exile.
Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition’s former presidential candidate, backed the proposals on social media. He wrote that the will of Venezuelans must once again shape the future of the nation. He also said the opposition would not accept political prisoners, persecution or a government that ignores the mandate of its citizens.
Rodriguez government faces accusations over rights abuses
Since January 3, the country has been led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, a figure from the long-governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela, known as PSUV. Leaders of that party have been accused of human rights abuses against political dissidents, including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and torture. These are allegations, and they have been made by critics rather than established by a court in the reporting provided.
The PSUV has remained in power after the United States launched a military operation to abduct and jail former President Nicolas Maduro. According to the report, it has done so with the support of the White House. US President Donald Trump has backed Rodriguez’s leadership, even though she served as Maduro’s vice president.
Trump’s administration has kept an active role in Venezuela, exerting control over its oil resources and pressing the Rodriguez government for reforms. Critics say, however, that the president has been reluctant to push for new elections. Instead, his administration has favoured a three-phase plan that puts stabilisation and economic recovery first, with a political transition coming later.
Machado’s push to return and tensions with Washington
Venezuelan authorities have blocked Machado’s repeated attempts to return, according to her party, Vente Venezuela. Reports say she has also tried to ask the Trump administration for help re-entering the country. In January, during a visit to Washington, DC, she gave her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, but media reports have suggested friction between him and her.
In interviews with news agencies and a US outlet, administration officials spoke anonymously about their frustration with her repeated efforts to return home. That frustration grew after a pair of deadly earthquakes in Venezuela last July, the officials were reported as saying. One official was quoted describing her push as “political opportunism.”
Machado remains one of the most popular figures in the opposition. She told a financial newspaper earlier this month that she would like to see elections held by July next year. She argued that the US government and Venezuelans share the view that a stable democracy is the only lasting way forward.
Machado’s 2024 ban and talks without her
Machado won the opposition coalition’s presidential primary in October 2023. In January 2024, however, Venezuela’s courts barred her from running in the upcoming race. The courts upheld a 15-year ban on her holding public office, which was reportedly linked to her support for US sanctions against the Maduro government.
Gonzalez ultimately replaced Machado as the opposition candidate. Maduro claimed victory for a third term in that election, despite widespread criticism that the vote did not meet democratic standards. The opposition published vote tallies that appeared to show Gonzalez had won, and the US recognised him as the country’s rightful president-elect.
A third round of talks between the Rodriguez government and the opposition began this month, but Machado has not been part of them. Instead, the negotiations have involved members of the 2015 National Assembly, which the opposition led and which was dissolved under Maduro. Machado had earlier been removed from the National Assembly in 2014 because of her activism against the government.
In a statement this month, the US State Department praised the talks. “Political reconciliation talks between the interim Venezuelan government and 2015 National Assembly representatives are producing tangible reforms in civil liberties and political rights, laying the groundwork for credible elections and a democratic transition,” the department said.
