(FILES) Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, right, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado wave during their campaign closing rally in Caracas on July 25, 2024, ahead of Sunday’s presidential election. AFP/Frederico Parra
CARACAS – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Saturday the “hour of freedom” had arrived for her country after the United States seized strongman Nicolas Maduro from power.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, who has been in hiding since Maduro’s disputed reelection in July 2024, said in a post on X that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the opposition says won the vote, “must immediately assume his constitutional mandate” as president.
“Venezuelans, the HOUR OF FREEDOM has arrived!” she posted.
Russia on Saturday urged the United States to release Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, following their shock capture by US forces earlier in the day.
“We strongly urge the American leadership to reconsider its position and release the legally elected president of the sovereign country and his wife,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended the US military action in Venezuela on Saturday, calling it legitimate ‘defence’, even as she said outside military force should not be used for regime change.
“The government believes that external military action is not the way to end totalitarian regimes, but at the same time considers defensive intervention against hybrid attacks on its security to be legitimate, as in the case of state entities that fuel and promote drug trafficking,” the far-right leader — an ally of US President Donald Trump — said in a statement. (AFP)
See links to AZP News coverage of US strikes in Venezuela:
Machado: Hour of Freedom is here
Venezuela Defence Minister Denounces US Military Intervention
‘Like a Television Show’: Trump Revels in Maduro’s Capture
No más Maduro: Venezuelan President Captured as US Strikes Caracas
Kamla: T&T has Peaceful Relations with Venezuela
CARICOM Monitoring Venezuela Situation
PNM Committed to ‘Zone of Peace’
