Machado: ‘I will be president when the time comes’
Venezuela’s opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado says she will become president when the time is right, but that the decision should come from a free vote by Venezuelans.Speaking at a Heritage Foundation news conference in Washington, DC on January 16, 2026, she discussed the country’s electoral future after the capture of Nicolás Maduro and referenced the 2024 presidential election, in which she was barred from running and supported Edmundo González Urrutia on the ballot. Maduro won with about 51.2% amid widespread international concerns about transparency, leading Machado to go into hiding while González fled to Spain with political asylum.
Machado emphasized that her role should be determined by a fair election decided by the Venezuelan people,describing the struggle as a spiritual and existential fight for freedom. She argued that Maduro feared her candidacy and claimed the opposition’s momentum showed the country’s desire for liberty.
OAN Staff Sophia Flores and Noah Secades
6:42 PM – Monday, February 2, 2026
Maria Corina Machado says she will be president of Venezuela when the time comes.
While on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Machado discussed plans for Venezuela’s electoral future following the capture of Nicholas Maduro.
Venezuela’s most recent presidential election took place on July 28, 2024. Former opposition primary winner Machado was barred from running by Venezuela’s highest courts, and she subsequently threw her support behind opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as her endorsed successor on the ballot.
The results of the election were immediately disputed after Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner with roughly 51.2 % of the vote, raising widespread international concerns over transparency and fairness. Machado went into hiding to avoid arrest while continuing to denounce the government’s actions, and González fled to Spain, where he was granted political asylum.
Machado says that, for now, her role in leading Venezuela should be determined by a free election decided by Venezuelan voters.
“I will be president when the time comes. But it doesn’t matter. That should be decided in elections by the Venezuelan people,” Machado stated.
“I wasn’t allowed to run in the last election as we mentioned before because Maduro was afraid to run against me and he thought Edmundo was not a threat because nobody knew who he was and in less than three months we managed to put the whole country supporting him because this is this is matter of freedom,” she continued. “I mean, this is an spiritual fight, an existential fight for Venezuela.”
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