Some have questions about who Venezuela’s next leader will be after President Donald Trump said the country’s opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, doesn’t have the people’s respect to run after Nicolas Maduro was captured by the U.S.
The president boldly told the world what he wants for Venezuela, starting now.
During his new conference in Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, Trump said the U.S. will run the South American country during the transition, though he did not give a timeline or details into who will oversee Venezuela.
“We’re in the oil business,” Trump said. “We’re going to sell it to them. In other words, we’ll be selling oil in larger doses because they couldn’t produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad.”
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriquez steps into the role as acting president after being sworn in hours after Maduro’s capture.
“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said. “Very simple.”
South Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz believes it’s wrong for the U.S. to work with Rodriquez.
“If you cut off the head of one snake, only to replace it with a different, equally as evil head, that’s unacceptable,” she said.
Wasserman Schultz instead pointed at opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Corina Machado to be the country’s next leader.
When asked about Machado, Trump made his opinion clear.
“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” he said. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Sunday on “This Week in South Florida” with Glenna Milberg, South Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who went to Oslo with Machado when she won the Nobel Prize, predicted her friend’s time will come.
Salazar said first, the United States must stabilize Venezuela.
“Most opposition leaders, including those that you mentioned, Maria Corina Machado, who I believe in the future will be the next president of Venezuela once elections are organized, not by the Maduro regime, but by independent and transparent process with international observers, but that’s in the future,” she said.
After Machado was banned by Maduro from running for president in 2024, the opposition leader stood behind Edmundo Gonzalez.
Gonzalez won the election with nearly 80 percent of the vote at the time, so his name is also in the conversation for who will lead Venezuela next.
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