Khaberni - Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado highlighted the complexities of the internal scene in Venezuela in a widely spread media interview following the US seizure of a ship off the coast of Venezuela the previous day.
In the interview, which garnered tens of thousands of views, Machado appeared in the context of her Nobel Peace Prize win, and began by saying she was "very grateful for the award," pointing to the escalation of her international status at a sensitive political moment.
Machado, an engineer and political activist who won an overwhelming majority in the 2023 opposition primary elections before the regime barred her from running, is one of the prominent figures opposing the Nicolás Maduro regime.
During the interview, she was asked if she would welcome American military intervention following the ship incident, but she dismissed this question, stating that Venezuela is "already occupied." She pointed out that the country had turned into an open arena for Russian and Iranian elements, and a haven for groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, which operate, according to her description, under state protection, making Venezuela a dangerous criminal hub in the Americas.
Machado clarified that large parts of Venezuelan territory, up to about 60%, had come under the control of Colombian insurgent groups and criminal cartels that are active in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and forced prostitution. She considered that these groups move with indirect support from Maduro's government, which has provided them with a safe environment to expand their influence.
Machado added that the regime relies on a strong and well-funded repressive apparatus and an array of networks including the drug trade, oil smuggling on the black market, and trafficking in arms and humans, noting that these financial flows have become the only source of its power in the absence of any real popular base.
In her vision for a solution, Machado noted that what Venezuela needs is not direct military intervention, but concentrated international action targeting the funding sources and criminal networks that fuel the repressive devices. She considered that cutting off these flows would undermine the regime's ability to continue, because what remains for it today, as she says, is only violence and terrorism.
Machado sees turning the Venezuelan crisis into a regional security issue makes American moves, such as seizing ships, a defensive step not an aggressive one, and aligns with Washington's approach towards confronting the "drug cartel" linked to Maduro.
