Venezuela opposition leader sees eventual elections

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Friday she was confident the remnants of what she called Venezuela's "criminal regime" would eventually

be dismantled and there would be an orderly transition to free elections, but cautioned that the road ahead would be difficult and complex.



Machado spoke to reporters in Washington a day after meeting President Donald Trump at the White House, where she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to him as she sought to sway him to give the opposition a role in determining Venezuela's future after the U.S. ousted longtime leader Nicolas Maduro.

Trump has backed former Maduro loyalists, led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, to govern the OPEC nation for now instead of Machado, whose movement was widely seen as the winner of a 2024 election that Maduro was accused of having rigged in his favor.