Nobel laureate Machado vows to return to Venezuela despite ally's detention

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado speaks to reporters as she departs after a meeting with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C., Monday. AFP-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado said Monday she still planned to return to Venezuela despite the detention of an opposition ally shortly after his initial release.

"This does not affect my return in the slightest. Quite the contrary," she told reporters in Washington.

"I have made it clear that I have some tasks to complete before returning, and once we achieve those, I'll be back in Venezuela," she said.

Machado, who quietly left Venezuela to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December, did not set a time for when she would return.

"I have been very clear that my intention is to return to Venezuela as soon as possible and join Venezuelans in their progress toward a democratic transition," she said.

Juan Pablo Guanipa, the former National Assembly vice president who is close to Machado, was freed Sunday in Caracas along with several other opposition figures.

But Guanipa was taken away hours later by heavily armed men, Machado said, after he publicly demanded democratic elections in Venezuela.

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez has released hundreds of prisoners jailed under former president Nicolas Maduro — her former boss — while also announcing a plan to grant a general amnesty.

President Donald Trump, who ordered the deadly January 3 raid in which US forces snatched Maduro, has played down the need for quick elections and said he is controlling Venezuela through forced compliance by Rodriguez.

Sunday "was a day filled with extreme emotions — the relief of so many families seeing their loved ones return, but also this reaction we are seeing from this tyranny," Machado said.

The opposition leader spoke after meeting experts at the headquarters of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The commission last sent a mission to Venezuela in 2002, when Maduro's firebrand leftist predecessor Hugo Chavez was in power.

It has since been denied entry to inspect detention centers and interview opposition members.

The United States had long championed the opposition as the legitimate winners of Venezuelan elections, but Trump dismissed Machado as lacking the support to run the country after he removed Maduro.

Trump has changed his tune and supported a role for Machado after she saw him at the White House and handed him her Nobel Peace Prize, which he had wanted.