Maria Corina Machado: ‘I Absolutely Support President Trump’s Strategy’ on Venezuela

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she was “absolutely” supportive of President Donald Trump’s strategy in her country.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: You believe it’s important to help the cause from inside the country right now. Can you help us understand what is going on, because we are seeing here in the US an increase in the pressure campaign. More sanctions on Venezuelan individuals and vessels. We saw an armed seizure of a vessel carrying oil out of Venezuela. Selling oil on the black market is really important money for the Maduro regime. Do you endorse this idea of more seizures and possibly even a blockade?

MACHADO: Look, I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy, and 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. And that’s why, and I say this from Oslo right now, I had dedicated this award to him because I think that he finally has put Venezuela in where it should be, in terms of a priority for the United States national security. And we do support these actions, because, Margaret, we are facing, not a conventional dictatorship. This is a very complex criminal structure that has turned Venezuela into a safe haven of international crime and terrorist activities, starting with Russia, Iran, Cuba, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Colombian guerrilla,  the drug cartels operating freely and directed in partnership with Maduro and his regime. And as every criminal structure is suffers, is when the inflows from their criminal activities are cut. And these, in the case of Maduro regime, comes from the oil black market to drug trafficking, gold smuggling, arm smuggling, even human smuggling and trafficking. So that’s what we believe, it was so important to apply, you know, law enforcement, and we have been asking this for years, so it’s finally happening. That’s why I believe the regime has its days numbered.

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