The Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado, stated this Sunday that Venezuelans are ready to participate in new elections that would allow for a transition to democracy, and reiterated that she will soon return to her country. "Today we are ready to move forward because there is no other society in the world better prepared for democracy and a genuine and complete transition than Venezuelan society," Machado said during a virtual press conference with the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD). The former deputy also stated that there is a political leadership that is aligned, organized, and ready to "do what needs to be done," without providing further details, while assuring that the government of Delcy Rodríguez "is being forced to dismantle its own structures of repression, corruption, and crime." Machado reiterated that she will return to Venezuela "very soon" to tour the entire country—although she did not specify a date this time either—after leaving the country last December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway after spending a year in hiding to avoid arrest by authorities, who have accused her of violence and calling for a military invasion. Prior to her intervention, the PUD presented a roadmap for holding "free elections," which involves appointing new authorities to the National Electoral Council (CNE) and achieving a transition in the country. The bloc's secretary general, Roberto Enríquez, indicated that the transition has three stages: stabilization, economic recovery and reconciliation, and the holding of elections—a plan nearly identical to the one proposed by the United States after capturing Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on January 3rd.
