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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says January 3 will go down as a “day that justice defeated tyranny” following the American capture of dictator Nicolas Maduro.
The Trump administration announced on Saturday that U.S. 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 being held in New York while they wait to face narco-terrorism charges against them.
“January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated tyranny,” Machado told “Hannity” on Monday. “It’s a milestone, and it’s not only huge for the Venezuelan people and our future, I think it’s a huge step for humanity, for freedom, and human dignity.”
MARÍA CORINA MACHADO EMERGES AS TOP POTENTIAL SUCCESSOR AFTER MÁDURO’S FALL
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Machado told the victory is “historic” and a “huge step” towards a democratic transition for the country.
“A free Venezuela means, first, a security ally, dismantling the criminal hub of the Americas and turning it into a security shield, the strongest ally to dismantle all these criminal structures that have made so much damage and harm to our people and to the American people as well,” she said. “Secondly, we will turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas. We will bring rule of law. We will open markets. We will give security to foreign investment. Third, we’ll bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee their country back home, to build a strong nation, prosperous nation, open society. We will [leave] behind all the destruction this socialist regime, criminal regime, has brought to our people and turn Venezuela into 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 overwhelmingly won the primary election, but was then barred by the government from running. Substitute Edmundo González ultimately ran in her place.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado waves a national flag during a protest called by the opposition on the eve of the presidential inauguration, in Caracas on January 9, 2025. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
“It was a miracle,” she remembered. “Everybody told us it was impossible to carry independent elections in a primary process, and we were able to bring the country together to carry these elections organized by civil society with millions of people participating. … Cowardly, he feared us. He feared me, Maduro. So, he thought that by banning me, he would stop us from winning, but exactly the opposite happened. Edmundo González Urrutia, standing in my place, and we moved all around the country and managed to bring a country together and defeated Maduro by a landslide … under extreme conditions, unfair conditions.”
Machado’s fight for freedom in Venezuela has been recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize, an award she dedicated to President Donald Trump upon reception.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado addresses a press conference on December 11, 2025, at the Norwegian government’s representative facilities in Oslo. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images)
“I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it,” she explained. “A lot of people, most people, said it was impossible to achieve what he has just done on Saturday, January 3. So, if I believe he deserved it in October, imagine now. I think he has proven to the world what he means.”
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Machado expressed hope for the future of the country moving forward following the Trump administration’s actions.
“I do want to say today, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, how grateful we are for his courageous vision, the actions, historical actions he has taken against this narco-terrorist regime to 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 a safer country nowadays.”
