Maria Corina Machado on Freedom, Risk, and Rebuilding Venezuela
Hour 3 features Sean’s full interview with Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela’s democratic opposition leader, as she describes the dangers still facing dissidents and journalists, and her plan to return to Venezuela during a fragile transition period. Machado lays out her vision for restoring rule of law, reopening markets, rebuilding institutions, and turning Venezuela from a criminal hub into a strategic ally and energy engine for the Americas. Sean presses on practical risks during the transition — including loyalists, gangs, and instability — and what comes next for free and fair elections.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
All right, news roundup and information overload hour.
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If you want to be a part of the program, it's 800-941-Sean, if you want to join us.
In a minute, we will be joined by Venezuela's leader of the Democratic opposition, Maria Corino Machado.
Just as a reminder of her background, her history, it was only 2023.
She, as the opposition party leader, won that primary with more than 92% of the vote, an overwhelming popular mandate, became a symbol of Venezuela's Democratic opposition.
Maduro then banned her from the ballot, despite striking a deal with the Biden administration for reduced sanctions in exchange for free and fair elections.
They were anything but free.
They were anything but fair.
And despite this fact, she remained the opposition leader.
And she stayed on the ground and stayed in Venezuela at great risk to her own personal life.
In the meantime, her key ally, Edmundo Gonzalez, ran in her place.
But those elections, nobody recognizes them as legitimate or free or fair by any measure.
The more widely accepted results show that the opposition won by nearly 40 points.
And anyway, then she was given, if you recall, the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025.
And that was announced in October of 2025.
The ceremony took place December 10, 2025.
And she was on this program December 17th of last year before I went on my long vacation of the year.
And following the announcement that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize, she said, today more than ever, we count on President Trump and the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, the democratic nations of the world, as our principal allies to achieve freedom and democracy.
I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.
And anyway, she joins us now, and her plan is to return as soon as possible to Venezuela.
She, you know, has she basically knew if she went back there that her life would be in jeopardy.
Anyway, Maria, Karina Machado, it's great to have you back.
Thank you for joining us.
Oh, thank you, Sean.
Thank you on behalf of all the Venezuelan people.
You have been a great supporter of our cause for democracy, for freedom, for dignities, for families, and for turning Venezuela from a criminal hub and a real threat to the whole hemisphere into a true ally of the people, of the good people of our nation and our nations throughout the Americas.
So thank you very much.
You said on X the hour of freedom has arrived.
Now, with that, there is a temporary period of time here where obviously the United States is going to keep the country stable until such time as they're able to have free and fair elections.
I would imagine you will be back and hopefully running.
Is that correct?
Absolutely.
And I convey to all the people that are listening to us right now what this moment represents.
This is a milestone in Venezuelan history.
And I would go further, I would say, into the history of the Americas.
For over 27 years, Venezuela has been under a brutal dictatorship that has turned a country that used to be one of the most wealthy and more free and secure into a country that is poorer than Haiti, where our people, a third of our population have been forced to flee, Sean, to survive, to survive, to send food back to your children.
I mean, today, 86% of Venezuelan people live in poverty, and we have the largest oil reserves in the world.
And why?
Because there's a socialist, criminal, narco-terrorist regime that has turned this country into the safe haven for all the enemies of the Americas, saying the Russian, Iranian, the Cubans, the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist Islamic groups, the drug cartels that operate in partnership with Maduro, with Del Codriguez, and with these, you know,
the cruise of the regime that have intentionally destroyed Venezuela and destabilized the region.
Use our huge resources to destabilize the region, including the United States.
So what happened last Saturday on July 3rd, I believe that that day will go down in history as the day justice triumphed over tyranny.
And President Trump will be recognized in history, in history, through generations to come as the leader who was able to do what many said it was impossible to achieve, which is dismantle this criminal structure that has brought so much pain, not only to Venezuela, but to the whole hemisphere.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the entire world.
You surpass Saudi Arabia, which is number two by a significant amount.
I know the oil needs a lot of refinery.
American companies helped since the 1920s build out a lot of that oil infrastructure.
The Energy Secretary is meeting now with all of the energy producers in this country in the hopes of getting online the vast resources which will help the Venezuelan people.
It will take some time to get there.
But that is obviously the goal.
And I think the President rightly is focusing in on, okay, we've got to start producing this oil.
So the people of Venezuela will be the beneficiaries of it, as will the companies that were robbed blind when they nationalized all the oil companies.
Absolutely.
This is going to be a win-win situation solution.
And not only in oil and gas, as you say, Venezuela has vast gas reserves and that largest oil reserves in the world, but also minerals, rare minerals, infrastructure, technology, electricity in a world that needs for AI and technology energy supply.
Venezuela has the cheapest and cleanest supply in the region.
And we are only three hours away from Florida.
I mean, Venezuela has an enormous potential.
But in order to transform these resources into wealth, certainly you need investment, huge investment, but you need to have security.
You need to have rule of law.
You need to have infrastructure.
And you need to have people, people that are trained, people that are responsible, that are freedom lovers.
And that's precisely what Venezuela has, what Venezuela needs, not rule of law.
Today, imagine, Sean, Venezuela is in the last place worldwide of 142 countries that have been evaluated by the justice index project.
Globally, Venezuela is in the last place.
Who is going to invest in a country where property rights are not respected, where you don't have an independent judiciary?
But that's precisely what we are going to bring.
We're going to privatize what Chavez and Maduro took over.
We're going to open markets.
We're going to reduce taxes and make it super attractive and super competitive regarding the fiscal conditions.
And we're going to introduce protection for external international investment.
But most of all, we're going to have our people, that 9 million people that were forced to flee and that have been trained, that have been learning, starting investing abroad, coming back home.
And it's going, you know, we are going to turn Venezuela from this criminal hub, from the sanctuary of all these criminal networks that have, you know, installed in the heart of the Americas.
We're going to turn it into the energy hub of the Americas and the strongest ally the U.S. has ever had in our region.
Now, I don't want to be Pollyannish about all of this, but transitions such as you're describing, I believe it is beyond possible.
I think it will become a reality.
I'm very optimistic for the people of Venezuela, for you, and for your country.
The amount of wealth available for the people is beyond comprehension.
People don't really fully understand how much wealth can be produced in your country.
Transitions, though, like this are very, very difficult.
You have Maduro loyalists, you have Trende Aragua, you have narco-terrorists.
You know, their entire livelihood is now going to be disrupted and there will be, I assume, hiccups and difficulties during this transition.
What do you foresee?
That's absolutely true.
We do not underestimate the challenges and complexities because during 27 years, Venezuela has been destroyed.
Not only our economy, not only all the private sector, not only forcing people to flee, our institutions.
There is no justice, no education.
Also, the way our territory has been given away to international and foreign criminal groups.
So we do not underestimate the challenges ahead.
But, and I do understand that for American people, you know, regime change and transitions to democracy create concerns because of the experiences of the past.
But I ask you to think of the profound differences that Venezuela has compared to Middle East countries.
On one hand, we have a democratic culture.
We had 50 years of democracy in which Venezuela was an example to the whole region.
Secondly, we have a cohesive and united population.
We have no religious tensions or social or political.
I mean, 90% of the population want the same.
I mean, we won by a landslide with 70% of the votes a year ago with extreme, fraudulent, unfair conditions.
Today, with free and fair conditions and elections, we would win with over 90% of the votes, Sean.
And this is, you know, a united country.
We want our children back home.
We want to live in a free country.
We want justice and opportunities and to speak out and live with dignity.
And third, we have a legitimized leadership that has very strong support in the population, including the armed forces.
You know, recently, a couple of months ago, a poll was carried out by the top brass of the military within the armed forces, and over 70% said they supported me.
They wouldn't make that public, of course, but they did get the information, leaked the information to us.
So, you know, there are certain groups, yes, that are violent.
We're seeing them operating in the last hours surrounding Caracas, these gangs that are armed and are threatening the people.
They detained 14 journalists yesterday.
They have been threatening everyone who speaks out.
They stop people in the streets and they search their phones.
If they see a picture or the name of President Trump or my name, they would be detained.
Yesterday, they issue an executive decree.
Well, it was published.
Supposedly, it was signed by Maduro on Saturday, that day he was detained, in which this executive decree says that anybody, anybody that supports President Trump's actions will be immediately detained and that would disappeared.
So we are living very tough days.
We do not underestimate the capacity of these groups to promote instability.
But I want to be absolutely firm in this.
We have the teams ready.
We know what we need to do.
And with the support of the U.S. government and President Trump, we will move into an orderly and sustainable transition to democracy in Venezuela.
With 86% of Venezuelans living in poverty in what should be one of the richest countries on earth, I can only imagine that there is a sigh of relief that Maduro is gone, but there are his loyalists and holdovers and narco-terrorists and Trende Aragua that probably want to intimidate them, and their goal will be very different.
I'm going to take a break here, but on the other side, if you can stay a few more minutes, I want to talk about your return.
I want to talk about your safety upon your return, because I would imagine that there are enemies of yours that do not want you to return.
But anyway, we'll continue.
We'll have more with the leader of Venezuela's Democratic opposition, Maria Corino Machado on the other side.
We'll get to your calls coming up also.
800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, we continue with Venezuelans Democratic opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, is with us.
This, you know, obviously now, one of the things I admire the most about you, and we've known you now for a long time, and we're cheering for you.
We're cheering for your country, but I'm also worried about your safety and your security.
Now, what most people don't know is even after Maduro did all these horrible things to you and you won the primary with 92% of the vote, and then he took you off the ballot because he didn't want to run against you, and that was in 2023, you stayed in Venezuela, and you stayed until you went to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
You've not been back since, and you're planning on going back.
Do you have a plan?
Do you have security forces that you know you can trust?
I don't want to wake up one day or be doing this radio show or my TV show and have breaking news that God forbid something happens to you, because I would imagine Maduro loyalists, Prende Aragua people, and narco-terrorists probably don't want you to return.
Well, certainly, certainly.
And they have threatened me for many years and my family and my friends.
I have my closest colleagues in prison right now.
Perhaps people do not understand the degree of terror Maduro and Del Cirodriguez and Losado Cabello has put on our population.
I mean, there are over 90 detention centers.
Many of them are, you know, hidden places, torture centers in which even young women have been sexually assaulted and they abuse them in exchange for the possibility to take a bath or to see their moms.
Children have been detained.
Young teenagers have tried to commit suicide in the last months because they are in inhuman conditions.
And so this is horrible.
We know the risk we face.
And that's why we have insisted that the first step in any transition has to be the liberation of the political prisoners.
And that's why I'm so grateful to President Trump.
He mentioned that today.
He insisted that the main torture center in Venezuela, which is the biggest in Latin America, should be dismantled.
And that's a great message that believe me, Sean, it reaches our people in prison.
It reaches their mothers, their wives, their children.
So we need to stop repression.
Any transition starts to dismantle the repression apparatus, which is directed by Delsi Rodriguez, who is the person in power right now.
She's the architect of the older torture system.
She's the one who gives orders to, you know, damage, kill, disappeared, innocent journalists, workers, housewives, students, teachers, nurses, nurses, just because they have denounced the horrible situation of our hospitals.
So I want to thank President Trump.
This is a main step.
Certainly, I realize there is huge risk in going back to Venezuela, but I will go back as soon as possible.
As I told you before, I believe my responsibility is to be more useful to this cause.
That's why I stayed in clandestine hidden over 16 months.
That's why I decided to go out of Venezuela with high risk as well.
And that's why to speak to the world, to be able to speak with you as I'm speaking right now, to meet people that are truly decisive, are great allies, champions of this cause around the world, to see the Venezuelan diaspora and also to meet to good people of other nationalities that share our cause and understand what Venezuela means, not only for our nation, our people, but also for all the people in the Americas.
Today, the United States is a safer place, a safer country, after what President Trump did on Saturday.
And this is something that history will recognize.
So we need to move forward.
This means we need to take risks.
Yes, we're willing to do what it takes.
And I just want to tell you how much I trust the Venezuelan people, Sean.
We have proven courage, resilience, discipline, and love, profound love for family, for children, for our country, and for freedom.
And what we are doing will have huge impact, not only in our country, but in the whole Americas.
And these are decisive moments that require courage and vision, and that's precisely what President Trump has demonstrated.
We've heard so many times that it was impossible to get where we are.
People told me it's impossible to carry out a primary organized civil society.
It's impossible to defeat Maduro in a presidential election, you know, totally fraudulent.
It's impossible to get him out of the country and to make him face the justice.
And President Trump made it possible.
So now, when people say it's impossible to carry out a peaceful transition, I just say wait and see.
You will see Venezuelans and President Trump doing what people said impossible, making it a reality.
Are you confident that you will have a large enough loyal security entourage that can protect you upon your return to Venezuela?
Because, as I said, there's evil everywhere.
I mean, they tried to kill President Trump not once, but twice here.
I know.
I know.
And certainly, in order to do that, we need the support of the United States government, certainly, because it's a minority.
As I said before, these are, you know, gangs that have been highly armed and financed by the regime repression apparatus, by Del C Rodriguez and Josado Cabello and others who are the ones who direct these criminal groups.
But it's an absolute minority.
Once we liberate the armed forces, and I know this is hard to understand, but the armed forces are also under repression and also persecuted.
There are hundreds of military that have been disappeared, tortured, and even killed because they are loyal citizens to democracy and the constitution.
But once we are able to liberate the armed forces, we will be able to dismantle these groups and take control progressively of all Venezuelan territory.
We know what has to be done.
We have the teams.
We have the plans.
We know we will get great advice and support from our main allies, especially mainly the United States of America, that understands the great opportunity this means for the security of the hemisphere.
You said to me on television last night that you want to meet with President Trump and give him your Nobel Peace Prize.
I've never heard of that before.
Do you have any plans to meet with the President?
And hopefully I would assume that's going to happen.
Are there any plans scheduled now?
And do you still plan on giving him that Nobel Peace Prize?
Oh, absolutely.
Look, we've gone so far because we have stuck always to the truth, even when it's uncomfortable and when it's not politically correct.
But it is the truth, and it's just.
And if there's someone who deserves to get credit for what's going on in Venezuela right now, it's precisely President Trump.
We wouldn't be here at the threshold of freedom if he hadn't made this courageous and decisive action.
A flawless operation, I have to say.
Impressive, historic.
And the Venezuelan people that are the ones honored, are the ones who deserved to be recognized, also share my view that President Trump deserves to be honored, because we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his decisive action.
And I not only look forward to being able to tell him this personally, but I also look forward to the moment in which I will host him in a free Venezuela.
And he will hear from Venezuelans all around the country how they recognize and how we think what this has meant, not only to change our history, and we will see millions coming back to Venezuela.
Imagine that, Sean.
They want to come back.
They want to come back and we need them back.
And these are people that have invested, studied, learned, worked super hard all around the world.
And hundreds of thousands are in the United States, but they want to come back.
So I always tell them, I used to stand at the Simón Beliber Bridge that is in the border with Colombia, and I saw thousands living in tears.
Now I'll be standing there with my arms open, bringing, you know, receiving them back, welcoming them back to a luminous future.
And that will be thanks to what President Trump decided to act and do.
And history, history will, you know, make justice as well.
And those who didn't act before for witness will face and will understand what courage means.
And also, I want to insist that once we liberate Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua will follow the same path.
And for the first time in history, we will have the hemisphere, the Americas, free of communism, free of dictatorship, free of narco-terrorism, for the first time in history.
I would be negligent if I didn't bring up that you and a fellow opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, you put out a statement to Laken Riley's family and other American families that have been impacted by vicious crimes by the street gang Trende Aragua and that you promised to offer reparations.
And in a letter to Riley's family, you said Lakin's life, full of potential and promise, was tragically cut short by an individual who never should have been allowed to cross your border.
And, you know, you said this was a direct consequence of Nicolas Maduro's regime, which fostered an environment where criminal organizations like Trende Aragua can flourish with impunity.
I thought that was an extraordinarily powerful letter and moment and recognition on your part.
And, you know, again, the President Riley is very focused on getting the economy of Venezuela up and running because unless and until that happens, people remain in poverty and starving and desperate and desperate people sometimes do desperate things.
And the quicker that's accomplished, the better it's going to be.
Absolutely.
And the only way you can dismantle these criminal groups is to have an approach from within the country and with the support of the information, intelligence, technology we get from our allies abroad.
But remember, it wasn't Colas Maduro, it was Dulcis Rodriguez, it was Josado Cabello, the ones who turned the Trendaragua from a local group into a transnational network.
Their intention was to under, you know, score The institutions in the whole hemisphere from the United States to Chile.
I mean, the president of Chile actually denounced José Ado Cabello as being, you know, the intellectual author of the crime committed in Santiago de Chile by the Trenderagua.
So the proof is there.
So, you know, we are felt so, so, so profoundly hurt with these crimes that these individuals committed.
And they will be brought to justice.
And we will be sure that anyone who committed a crime against somebody abroad Venezuela, other nationality, but also within Venezuela will face justice.
And we will bring no order because that's the only way you can have prosperity and peace.
Maria Corino Machado, leader of Venezuela's Democratic opposition, I know I speak for everyone in this audience.
It is the natural state of mankind to desire liberty and freedom.
And you are courageously fighting hard for that for the people of Venezuela.
This is a window of opportunity.
It is perilous.
It is dangerous.
And your courage is inspiring.
I know I speak for so many.
Our prayers, our love, our support are with you, your country, your fellow countrymen.
And we pray for your safe return.
And we look forward to hopefully interviewing you in Venezuela in the years to come as you now begin hopefully a new chapter of prosperity for you and your people.
That is our prayer for you.
That is our prayer for the people of Venezuela.
Amen.
Thank you, Sean.
God bless you.
God bless us all.
God bless America.
God bless Venezuela.
God bless President Trump.
And I'm sure we'll be able to host you in a free Venezuela.
Thank you very much.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for being with us.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
We got a great Hannity tonight, Nine Eastern on the Fox News channel.
Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, Mike Walls, also the son of the Shah of Iran, will join us as well.
We also have Kevin Cork, Comrade de Blasio, defending, well, very strange policies of Kami Mamdani, Tom Holman, Tommy Laren, Nine Eastern, tonight on Fox.