Venezuelan opposition leader on winning Nobel Peace Prize and Maduro regime

(CBS, KYMA) - María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The head of a private rescue organization, according to Brennan, said he help Machado get out of Venezuela and get to Norway.

This prompted Brennan to ask Machado why it was important to make it Norway and accept the award, Machado said:

"I frankly have no idea...I am not going to give more information regarding my trip to Norway. But what am I going to say...how important it is for the Venezuelan people. This is a recognition to a nation that has fought tirelessly, courageously against a criminal, narcoterrorist structure and I came to receive that prize, that award, and I'm going to bring it back home to the Venezuelan people as soon as possible."

Machado also said she plans on returning back to Venezuela, leading Brennan to ask if her children are concerned and when she's going back, and Machado said:

"Of course, they are concerned as any other Venezuelan child that has their parents or relatives back in our country, because the regime, as I said, has persecuted, tortured, killed, disappeared, thousands of Venezuelans, and recently it has turned even more violent because, you know when, when a criminal regime is falling apart and they know their days are numbered, they turn even more aggressive, even more violent. Just a couple of weeks ago, a 16 year old girl was kidnapped and taken away to prison just because they were looking for her brother, and since they couldn't find her brother, they took Samantha. So this is the kinds of actions that are currently happening in my country. So yes, my family is concerned, but they know I have said that I will be where I am more useful to our cause, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

During the interview, Brennan asked Machado if she's seeing any diplomatic success between the U.S. and Venezuela, and Machado said:

"In the last years, Venezuela has seen 17 dialog initiatives, not once, not twice, 17. Every single time the opposition or our allies or the United States have complied with every single thing we offered, the regime of the country has violated every single thing they offered on their own part. What did they get? They got time, they got legitimacy, they got money, and that's precisely what they think they can get again, once again. But certainly, things have changed very much in the last months, Venezuela is total different country. I mean, Maduro is weaker than ever. The Armed Forces, police are certainly divided and fractured, and our country is united, cohesive, and we finally have the administration, in this case, President Trump with a clear strategy that truly represents a credible threat for the regime. So if we had ever had a chance to finally move ahead into, towards democracy in our country, it's today."

Brennan followed up by asking what evidence Machado has that the military is weaker than ever, and if her escape was proof of that, and Machado answered saying:

"We have the evidence that the wide majority of the military want change, and that was...we saw that on July 28, 2024, that the military were ordered to expel our electoral witnesses from the polling stations and to deny our right to the original tally sheets and they disobeyed that order. Even in those polling stations where we know there is a high participation of military, we won by a landslide. More recently, we've seen more and more members of the military finding ways to connect with us, to send messages to show that they are feeling the same of what the rest of the country is feeling. When, when they, this military go back home, they find their children, their mother, their partners, saying that they are hungry, that they are persecuted, that their families have been divided. They are scared. Yes, they are scared, because repression and persecution in the military is even tougher than on civilians."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Machado talked about the regime under Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

According to Brennan, the regime has revoked television licenses for journalists to broadcast truthfully and has jailed journalists, targeted political opponents, committed sexual violence, tortured people and committed other crimes against humanity.

This led Brennan to ask if President Maduro stepping down is enough, or if the entire regime needs to be dismantled, and Machado said:

"That's a very good question, because certainly Maduro is the head of the structure, but it's like any other mafia system. You have families or groups that operate and sometimes even compete among each other. There are different degrees in the crimes they have committed, certainly those that have committed crimes against humanity that have been reported by the fact finding missions of the United Nations should face justice, local justice and international justice. There are other members of the regime or the armed forces that have committed lesser crimes. And certainly we will search for justice, not revenge. But this, I'm going to insist, what we're living right now is chaos. Maduro represent chaos. We're going to put order. And this whole idea, you know, people talking about a risk of a civil war and so on. Whoever says that has no idea at all about what Venezuela is. I mean, we are certainly the most cohesive society in the region, I would dare to say, perhaps in the world. I mean, Venezuelan society has no religious, social, regional, racial confrontations or tensions on the country. 90% of our population want the same, want the regime to go immediately, and we want to work hard to live with freedom. We want no more socialism, but most of all, we want our children back home."

Brennan and Machado also talked about if it was safe for Venezuelans in America to go back to the country, and Machado said, "Absolutely not. It will be safe once Maduro is gone, and every single citizen will be, you know, leaving freedom and respect in towards the law. We will bring back rule of law. We will liberate our political prisoners, and everybody will be free to speak out what they feel, what they think, what they want for the future, of their own future and their families."

To watch Brennan's full interview with Machado, click here.