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María Corina Machado revealed this Sunday, in an interview with EFE Agency in Madrid, that she maintains direct contact with officials of the Venezuelan regime to prepare for a power transition.
"I am in communication and in a continuous information exchange process with individuals who are in various levels of the regime and public administration to carry out a peaceful transition process," stated the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Machado also revealed that he has repeatedly offered the acting president Delcy Rodríguez a negotiated agreement: "We have offered her, as the winners of the election on July 28, our willingness to reach an agreement for a negotiated transition on multiple occasions, but she has not been willing."
Regarding the urgency of holding elections, he was emphatic: "Those who see a risk in the electoral process do not realize that not holding elections carries a much greater risk."
He also warned about the danger of delay: "If Venezuelans feel that what is happening is an economic issue, related to money, and not about people, they may completely lose their patience."
Machado estimated that "forty weeks is the necessary timeframe to have all technical aspects ready" and assured that "the process could be started tomorrow," although he acknowledged that there are political considerations that prevent setting a specific date.
He also announced his return to Venezuela: "In fact, I am going back to Venezuela to ensure that the process is peaceful and that all that energy, all that anguish, is channeled around an electoral process."
Regarding the impact of the capture of Nicolás Maduro that took place on January 3 during the Absolute Resolution Operation carried out by U.S. forces, Machado stated that this event "broke down all barriers" and that now "the flow is unstoppable."
Machado also expressed her conviction regarding the country's mood: "Venezuela is ready, determined, and absolutely eager to hold free elections, because that is the way to heal wounds and to begin the process of bringing our children home."
The interview took place at the end of a weekend in Madrid during which up to 200,000 Venezuelans from the diaspora gathered on Saturday at the Puerta del Sol to support her.
Machado refused to meet with President Pedro Sánchez, who was presiding over the IV Summit for the Defense of Democracy in Barcelona alongside Lula, Petro, Sheinbaum, and Orsi, and expressed regret over the Spanish stance: "I have always had very high expectations about what Spain can do for liberty and the liberal democracies of the West, and in the case of Venezuela, we would have hoped it would assume a leadership role in Europe."
Regarding the events in Barcelona, she was critical: "There are people who are desperately seeking excuses to prevent the people of Venezuela from expressing themselves freely," and she added, "The paradox is that many of them are the same ones who until recently said that we should vote at all costs, even in completely unconstitutional elections called by Maduro's regime, and yet now they say that we are not ready and that we should not participate in elections."
Regarding the disagreement with Sánchez, he closed the matter with pragmatism: "Now is the time to look ahead and not back, and there will be opportunities later on."
Machado also explicitly rejected the racist chants voiced by some of her supporters at Puerta del Sol on Saturday, referring to Delcy Rodríguez: "You will never hear a word or expression from me that judges or disqualifies a person based on their religion, gender, or race. And that is what the regime in Venezuela has done, dividing us for those reasons."
"We propose a process of healing and reconciliation that is based on respect for the dignity and the right of each person to live freely according to their beliefs," he concluded.
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