Maduro's Regime Now on the Brink, Venezuelan Opposition Leader Declares

On Sunday, Venezuelan opposition-leader-in-exile and Nobel Peace Prize awardee María Corina Machado sat down with CBS News Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan to discuss the (hopefully) coming downfall of Venezuelan strongman dictator Nicolás Maduro - and she gave the United States and President Trump a great deal of credit for helping in the efforts to oust Maduro.

Here are some highlights.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she's "absolutely" supportive of President Trump's strategy in the country amid his administration's increased pressure campaign against the regime of President Nicolás Maduro.
"We, the Venezuelan people, are very grateful to him and to his administration, because I believe he is a champion of freedom in this hemisphere," Machado said of Mr. Trump on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

While, as the saying goes, nations have no permanent allies, only permanent interests, it's in the interests of the United States to have Venezuela as a reliable trade partner and a bulwark of market economics in South America - not as the failing narco-state it has become under Maduro. At present, Venezuela is a destabilizing influence in the region, and it helps nobody - except, perhaps, Cuba - to have Maduro and his regime in place.

Ms. Machado is also clearly taking the long view, where sanctions are concerned.

Machado acknowledged that more sanctions and more possible seizures of oil come with the risk of cutting off the already impoverished people of Venezuela. But she said "what we're doing is for the well being of the Venezuelan people."
"What we want to do is to save lives, but Maduro was the one who declared a war on the Venezuelan people," Machado said. "A war we didn't want. A war we are suffering with hundreds of thousands of killings and forced executions in the last years."

Yes, the sanctions will hurt not only the Maduro regime but also the Venezuelan people. But sometimes the only way out is through, and Venezuela's leader-in-exile clearly seems to understand that. Any ouster of Maduro won't be easy, and it won't be quick, but nations often fall the way Hemingway described bankruptcy: First slowly, then all at once. It's easy to see this in Nicolás Maduro's future: A midnight scramble to the airport, with bags of American currency, a few armed men, and a private jet, with the dictator hoping maybe Cuba will take him in - and that he'll be able to access the Swiss bank accounts these people always seem to have.

We can hope, anyway.

Opposition Leader Machado: End Maduro's Reign of Repression Now

There was an interesting exchange, as well, on a possible transition - meaning, of course, one after Maduro's ouster.

“We know what we have to do the first 100 hours and the next 100 days.”

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says that should the opposition return to power in Venezuela, the country will “need a lot of support, advice, information, technology, not only from the… pic.twitter.com/G9dzZGZuYu
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 14, 2025

Margaret Brennan: Tell me about that transition. What kind of support do you need to keep the country together? To prevent another refugee crisis? And do you have that pledge from the American government now?
María Corina Machado: We will need a lot of support. Advice, information, technology, not only from the United States but from multilateral organizations, and some of which we are already working to gather. Not only in security issues, but also in power supply. Food supply. How do we, you know, bring order to our financial accounts? How do we restructure our debt? How we open markets for international investment, and bring security to international investment, in oil, in gas, in structure, in critical minerals? I mean, Venezuela is unique in terms of the amount of the natural endowments we have, and we're located three hours by plane from Florida, so it's hard to think, you know, in this shortening of the supply chains, that is in the near-shoring process taking place, there is no better ally in the region than Venezuela. And at the same time, you know, turning us from the criminal hub of the Americas to a security shield, for the United States and for the rest of the region, is a top priority for all. So, we have the plans ready. We have the teams ready. We know what we have to do the first 100 hours, and the next 100 days. Most importantly, and I want to insist on this, we have the people.

Best of luck to María Corina Machado and to the people of Venezuela; if they manage to defenestrate Nicolás Maduro, one way or another, that will be the beginning, not the end, of the work that has to be done to turn Venezuela into a respectable place again.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

Help us continue to report on the administration’s peace through strength foreign policy and its successes. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.