In Qatar-mediated talks, Machado was not part of US plan for post-Maduro Venezuela, Qatari source says

In the months before the United States launched a January raid to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela and the US participated in Qatar-mediated talks on what the country might look like if Maduro stepped down.

Yet the vision for a post-Maduro Venezuela discussed in the talks never touched on a role for prominent opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, according to a Qatari source who spoke with CNN.

The source said that neither US nor Venezuelan officials discussed Machado as part of a post-Maduro transition plan, despite her vocal support for US intervention in Venezuela and her strident criticism of the Maduro government.

Shortly after Maduro was captured, US President Donald Trump told reporters that he didn’t think Machado had the “support” within Venezuela necessary to lead a transition. A few weeks afterward, Machado visited Trump at the White House and gave him her Nobel Prize medal. Later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s position on Machado’s leadership potential had “not changed.”

At the time, Machado’s adviser David Smolansky said that the opposition figure is “a leader with an out of this world support, and she’s got the support from almost every Venezuelan.”