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CARACAS, Venezuela — <\/span>Venezuela\u2019s opposition supporters have long hoped for the day when Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> is no longer in power \u2014 a dream that was fulfilled when the U.S. military whisked the authoritarian leader away. But while Maduro is in jail in New York on drug trafficking charges, the leaders of his repressive administration remain in charge.<\/p>\n The nation’s opposition \u2014 backed by consecutive Republican and Democratic administrations in the U.S. \u2014 for years vowed to immediately replace Maduro with one of their own and restore democracy to the oil-rich country. But U.S. President Donald Trump delivered them a heavy blow by allowing Maduro\u2019s vice president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, to assume control.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a>, are in exile or prison.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were clearly unimpressed by the sort of ethereal magical realism of the opposition, about how if they just gave Maduro a push, it would just be this instant move toward democracy,\u201d David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for three decades, said of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n The U.S. seized Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores in a military operation Saturday, removing them both from their home on a military base in Venezuela\u2019s capital, Caracas. Hours later, Trump said the U.S. would \u201crun\u201d Venezuela and expressed skepticism that Machado could ever be its leader.<\/p>\n \u201cShe doesn\u2019t have the support within, or the respect within, the country,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cShe\u2019s a very nice woman, but she doesn\u2019t have the respect.\u201d<\/p>\n Ironically, Machado’s unending praise for the American president, including dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and her backing of U.S. campaigns to deport Venezuelan migrants and attack alleged drug traffickers in international waters, has lost her some support at home.<\/p>\n Machado rose to become Maduro’s strongest opponent in recent years, but his government barred her from running for office to prevent her from challenging \u2014 and likely beating \u2014 him in the 2024 presidential election. She chose retired ambassador Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia to represent her on the ballot.<\/p>\n Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner mere hours after the polls closed, but Machado’s well-organized campaign stunned the nation by collecting detailed tally sheets showing Gonz\u00e1lez had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin. <\/p>\n The U.S. and other nations recognized Gonz\u00e1lez as the legitimate winner.<\/p>\n However, Venezuelans identify Machado, not Gonz\u00e1lez, as the winner, and the charismatic opposition leader has remained the voice of the campaign, pushing for international support and insisting her movement will replace Maduro.<\/p>\n In her first televised interview since Maduro’s capture, Machado effusively praised Trump and failed to acknowledge his snub of her opposition movement in the latest transition of power.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke with President Trump on Oct. 10, the same day the prize was announced, not since then,\u201d she told Fox News on Monday. \u201cWhat he has done as I said is historic, and it\u2019s a huge step toward a democratic transition.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday seemed to walk back Trump’s assertion<\/a> that the U.S. would \u201crun\u201d Venezuela. In interviews, Rubio insisted that Washington will use control of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry to force policy changes, and called its current government illegitimate. The country is home to the world\u2019s largest proven crude oil reserves<\/a>.<\/p>\n Neither Trump nor Rodr\u00edguez have said when, or if, elections might take place in Venezuela. <\/p>\n Venezuela\u2019s constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever a president becomes \u201cpermanently unavailable\u201d to serve. Reasons listed include death, resignation, removal from office or \u201cabandonment\u201d of duties as declared by the National Assembly. That electoral timeline was rigorously followed when Maduro\u2019s predecessor, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, died of cancer in 2013.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally who traveled with the president on Air Force One on Sunday, said he believes an election will happen but did not specify when or how.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to build the country up \u2013 infrastructure wise \u2013 crescendoing with an election that will be free,\u201d the South Carolina Republican told reporters.<\/p>\n But Maduro loyalists in the high court Saturday, citing another provision of the constitution, declared Maduro’s absence \u201ctemporary\u201d meaning there is no election requirement. Instead, the vice president \u2014 which is not an elected position \u2014 takes over for up to 90 days, with a provision to extend to six months if approved by the National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling party.<\/p>\n In its ruling, Venezuela\u2019s Supreme Court made no mention of the 180-day limit, leading to speculation that Rodr\u00edguez could try to cling to power as she seeks to unite ruling party factions and shield it from what would certainly be a stiff electoral challenge.<\/p>\n Machado on Monday criticized Rodr\u00edguez as \u201cone the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking \u2026 certainly not an individual that can be trusted by international investors.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if an election takes place, Machado and Gonz\u00e1lez would first have to find a way back into Venezuela. <\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez has been in exile in Spain since September 2024 and Machado left Venezuela last month when she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months to receive her Nobel Prize in Norway.<\/p>\n Ronal Rodr\u00edguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory in Colombia\u2019s Universidad del Rosario, said the Trump administration’s decision to work with Rodr\u00edguez could harm the nation’s \u201cdemocratic spirit.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhat the opposition did in the 2024 election was to unite with a desire to transform the situation in Venezuela through democratic means, and that is embodied by Mar\u00eda Corina Machado and, obviously, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia,\u201d he said. \u201cTo disregard that is to belittle, almost to humiliate, Venezuelans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n