María Corina Machado — speaking from Panama, where she has been based since leaving Venezuela — told a television network that negotiations between the government under Delcy Rodríguez and part of the Venezuelan opposition took place in Caracas without her participation, a situation she attributed to pressure from Washington. Machado holds the Nobel Peace Prize and has been a central figure in the opposition movement.
According to her account, talks held in Caracas that week proceeded without her participation, despite her standing at the front of the opposition and her direct involvement in Venezuela's electoral process. Pushback came from the State Department, which maintained that Machado's party had in fact been extended an invitation to take part.
A State Department spokeswoman indicated that Machado holds an unconditional right to re-enter her country at a time of her choosing. Machado herself — who secured the opposition primary vote in 2023 and backed Edmundo González Urrutia's presidential bid in 2024 — stated that her return to Venezuela would come sooner than anticipated, with the aim of rallying supporters ahead of forthcoming elections.
Those remarks came at a time when Washington is engaged in dialogue with both the Delcy Rodríguez administration and various opposition factions over the future political and economic path of the South American nation.
Machado directed pointed criticism at Betancourt — a business figure who had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to oversee oil fields holding close to a fifth of Venezuela's verified petroleum reserves. She characterised Betancourt as bearing considerable responsibility for the hardships facing Venezuelans at present, and described the practices she attributed to him as a form of corruption that had caused harm to the population. Machado stated that, were she to lead a transitional democratic government, he would not be treated as a viable partner for trade.
Under the agreement, NABEP — the North American Blue Energy Partners consortium headed by Betancourt — holds rights to extract petroleum across 17 separate fields whose combined proven reserves are estimated at roughly 65 billion barrels. Under the arrangement, a 35% stake in the parent company passed to the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, with a separate provision allowing the State Department to purchase up to 20% of output at production cost.
Pricing irregularities tied to state-awarded power plant contracts have placed Betancourt at the centre of a formal investigation. Judicial proceedings in multiple countries have at various points focused on aspects of his career path.
Her remarks also took in the question of drawing overseas capital into the country, with her backing contingent on any such arrangements operating within the bounds of domestic law — stating that contracts signed in accordance with Venezuelan legislation would be honoured. In a statement on attracting greater investment, Machado outlined three conditions she viewed as necessary: a secure environment, political stability, and recognised legitimacy.
Among her proposals was the establishment of an independent truth commission tasked with cataloguing past abuses, creating a reparations framework for those harmed, and ensuring that individuals found responsible face legal consequences.
Those remarks laid bare the gap between her political ambitions and the approach taken by the Trump administration, which moved to preserve chavismo's hold on power under Rodríguez after U.S. forces detained Nicolás Maduro on January 3. Machado nonetheless told reporters that her view on Washington pursuing a democratic transition has not wavered.
