Newsmax: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado used an appearance at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Monday to make one message unmistakably clear: Venezuela’s political transition must end with free and transparent elections — and it should happen as soon as possible.
Machado’s remarks were her first public comments since President Donald Trump announced Friday a sweeping new oil agreement with Venezuela that gives U.S. interests majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves.
Yet Machado did not directly address the controversial agreement in her Bled speech.
Instead, she focused on the political condition she has long argued must precede Venezuela’s economic reconstruction: the restoration of democracy through legitimate elections.
“For democracy to be fully restored in Venezuela, free and transparent elections must be held as soon as possible,” Machado said, arguing that only respect for the popular will guarantee peace and stability.
The emphasis is significant because the Trump administration’s oil agreement has immediately raised questions about whether Washington’s economic interests could move faster than Venezuela’s promised political transition.
Machado has previously advocated opening Venezuela’s enormous oil and gas resources to international investment, and her Bled remarks again presented a future democratic Venezuela as a potential energy and investment powerhouse.
She said that after free elections, Venezuela would require massive international investment to rebuild healthcare, electricity, infrastructure, education, technology, transportation, and the oil and gas industries.
She also portrayed Venezuela as potentially becoming a major supplier of energy to the Western Hemisphere and a strategic partner for Europe.
But the order of events in her presentation was notable: elections first, reconstruction afterward.
Trump announced the U.S.-Venezuela agreement on Aug. 28, describing it as the “biggest oil deal in world history.” Under the arrangement as described by the administration and Venezuelan officials, a U.S.-controlled company would gain access to 17 Venezuelan oil fields containing roughly 65 billion barrels of proven reserves.
The plan envisions more than $100 billion in investment and potentially more than $200 billion in tax revenue for Venezuela.
The deal is intended to revive Venezuela’s devastated oil industry while giving the United States greater access to Venezuelan crude. Trump has also said increased Venezuelan production could eventually help lower U.S. gasoline prices and replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
But major details remain unresolved. The full text of the agreement has not been publicly released, and experts have questioned its legal basis, the absence of competitive bidding and the feasibility of investing the enormous sums required to develop Venezuela’s heavy crude.
That uncertainty has produced criticism from both sides of the American political spectrum.
Democrats have argued that the agreement demonstrates that oil, rather than democracy, was the underlying objective of the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., called it “corruption at epic scale,” while Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accused Trump of putting U.S. service members at risk to obtain Venezuelan oil for private interests.
There has also been skepticism from the political right.
Florida Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar initially attacked the agreement, warning that a deal with Venezuela’s interim government could expire when Trump leaves office.
That tension — between an immediate economic agreement and the still-unfulfilled promise of democratic elections — was also evident in comments from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Cruz, a prominent Republican supporter of the Trump administration’s Venezuela policy, defended the oil agreement while simultaneously insisting that it cannot substitute for elections.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Cruz said there “needs to be democratic, free elections in Venezuela.” He said the elections should take place no later than the middle of next year.