Months before Maduro arrest, Nobel Peace laureate Maria Machado had promised to make Venezuela a $1.7 trillion economy

Months before the US military on President Donald Trump’s instructions captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Nobel Peace laureate and opposition leader María Corina Machado had batted for what she called the most ambitious economic transformation in Venezuela’s history through a sweeping privatisation policy. Speaking in 2025 at Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh virtually, Machado had called for reversing Maduro’s policies via privatisation, an opportunity she said was worth $1.7 trillion. She described Maduro’s policies as “the disaster this socialist system has wrought.” Speaking from hiding, Machado in June 2025 had envisioned a bold policy to revive Venezuela’s economy with large-scale…