Venezuelan opposition leader Machado reacts to Maduro’s capture by US military forces

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said January 3 would be considered the “day when justice defeated tyranny” following the capture of dictator Nicolas Maduro.

The Trump administration announced Saturday that American forces had captured the dictator and his wife Cilia Flores after successful “large-scale” military strikes targeting the Venezuelan government. The dictator and his wife are now detained in New York while awaiting answer to narcoterrorism charges brought against them.

“January 3 will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” Machado told “Hannity” on Monday. “It’s a big step, and it’s not only huge for the Venezuelan people and our future, I think it’s a big step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity.”

MARÍA CORINA MACHADO EMERGES AS POTENTIAL SUCCESSOR AFTER FALL OF MÁDURO

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado greets at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Machado told Fox News that the victory was “historic” and a “big step” toward democratic transition for the country.

“A free Venezuela That means, first, a security ally, dismantling the criminal center of the Americas and transforming it into a security shield, the most powerful ally to dismantle all these criminal structures that have caused so much damage and harm to our people and to the American people as well,” she said. “Second, we will make Venezuela the energy center of the Americas. We will bring the rule of law. We will open the markets. We will give security to foreign investments. Third, we will bring home millions of Venezuelans who were forced to flee their country, to build a strong nation, a prosperous nation and an open society. We will [leave] behind all the destruction that this criminal socialist regime has inflicted on our people and which has made Venezuela the main ally of the United States in Latin America. »

Machado’s fight for a free Venezuela is not new. The political leader ran against Maduro and won the election overwhelmingly. primary electionbut the government later banned him from running. Substitute Edmundo Gonzalez finally ran to his place.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado waves a national flag during an opposition-organized protest on the eve of the presidential inauguration, in Caracas on January 9, 2025. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

“It was a miracle,” she remembers. “Everyone told us that it was impossible to hold independent elections in a primary process, and we managed to bring the country together to carry out these elections organized by civil society and in which millions of people participated. …Cowardly, he feared us. He feared me, Maduro. So he thought that by banning me he would prevent us from winning, but the exact opposite happened. Edmundo González Urrutia, in my place, and we traveled the whole country and managed to bring together a country and defeated Maduro by a landslide… in extreme conditions, unfair conditions.”

Machado’s fight for freedom in Venezuela was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize, an award she dedicated to the president Donald Trump upon receipt.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado addresses a news conference on December 11, 2025 at the representative offices of the Norwegian government in Oslo. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images)

“I dedicated it to President Trump because I thought at that time he deserved it,” she explained. “A lot of people, most people, said it was impossible to achieve what he had just done on Saturday, January 3. So if I think he deserved it in October, imagine now. I think he proved to the world what he meant.”

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Machado expressed hope for the country’s future following the Trump administration’s actions.

“I want to say today, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, how grateful we are for his courageous vision, the actions, the historic actions that he has taken against this phenomenon. narco-terrorist regime start dismantling this structure and bringing Maduro to justice, which means that 30 million Venezuelans are now closer to freedom, but also that the United States of America is today a safer country. »