In an excerpt of an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says she will one day become president of her country but that the ultimate decision is up to the people of Venezuela.
"I will be president when the time comes," she said. "But it doesn't matter. That should be decided in elections by the Venezuelan people."
Machado was responding to a question from CBS' "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan who asked her what role she expected to play in a future Venezuelan government.
The full interview is set to air locally on CBS4-Miami on Sunday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. It will also air on CBSNews.com and on the "Face the Nation" YouTube channel.
She said former Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro barred her as a candidate before the July 2024 presidential election "because [he] was afraid [of] running against me, and he thought Edmundo [González Urrutia] was not a threat, because nobody knew who he was," Machado told "Face the Nation."
"And in less than three months, we managed to [get] the whole country supporting him, because this is [a] matter of freedom," she said.
Maduro declared victory in July 2024 in what international observers described as a fraudulent election. The country’s opposition candidate, González, received about 70% of the vote.
READ MORE: Venezuela’s Machado says she presented her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump during their meeting
Maduro was ousted from power on Jan. 3 after President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. military assault to capture him and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both have been indicted in New York federal court on cocaine-trafficking charges.
Trump has since raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela, giving no timetable on when elections might be held.
He has effectively sidelined Machado, who has long been the face of resistance in Venezuela. His administration is working closely with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s second in command.
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
