The Trump administration reviewed Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado's plans for the eventual departure of Nicolas Maduro from power, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
According to internal US government documents, the plan outlined by Machado and her team proposes creating forces to stabilize the country within the first 100 hours and the first 100 days after Maduro's departure, and holding elections during the first year.
Although the team of the Venezuelan opposition leader, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate,did not share their full plan with the Trump administration for security reasons,US officials admitted to the Postthat they are"better prepared than previously thought."
According to the newspaper, the opposition team conducted a detailed analysis of the Venezuelan Army and concluded that only a"limited" purge would be necessary, since only 20% of the officers are"irredeemable" and the rest are either opposed to Maduro or apolitical.
The Trump administration, which does not recognize Maduro's legitimacy and accuses him of leading a drug trafficking network, has deployed an unprecedented military presence in the Caribbean Sea.
In that operation he claims to have destroyed about twenty boats used for drug trafficking and to have killed more than 80 people, and he threatens to begin attacks"soon" inside Venezuelan territory.
Despite the tension, Trump and Maduro held a telephone conversation in November that, according to sources consulted by The Washington Post, was cordial.
During the call, the US president said he would like Maduro to step down, although he did not set any ultimatum and both agreed to maintain further contact in the future, the newspaper added.
María Corina Machado will attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which assists the Committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, stated that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will attend the award ceremony in person on December 10 in Oslo, as she herself has confirmed to them.
"We spoke with her last night and she told us she will be in Oslo," Erik Aasheim, head of communications at the Nobel Institute, told EFE.
The representative stressed that the institution could not provide any further details about Machado's trip, who lives in hiding in Venezuela, nor about the time of her arrival, for security reasons.
The Paraguayan government announced this week that President Santiago Peña will travel to Norway to accompany Machado to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, as will the presidents of Panama, José Raúl Mulino; and Ecuador, Daniel Noboa.
Also expected to attend is Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain, who ran against Nicolás Maduro in the July 2024 elections.
Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize"for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy," the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on October 10.
