and Venezuela is about a month away from its inauguration day but on January 10th the candidate the world sees as the president-elect may not be taking office current president Nicholas Maduro is clinging to power claiming he won the election now a topan Human Rights group is ordering Venezuelan officials to preserve election materials as it investigates claims that Maduro stole the election in July the UN estimates 7.7 million Venezuelans have left since 2014 as they face violence and lack of food and more than 545,000 have come to the United States now the outcome on inauguration day
could send more fleeing to the US just as the Trump Administration is promising to tighten immigration Venezuela's opposition leader Maria corn Mado joins me now with more on all that uh Maria thank you for joining us again you know just a month shy now of inauguration day do you think edmundo Gonzalez widely recognized as Venezuela's president-elect will actually take office on January 10th thank you very much Diana uh we're facing really tough times at this moment in Venezuela as you said the whole world knows that mudo lost we won by a landslide but mudo decision
since then has been to unleash the most brutal repression wave in in our history actually it's been increasing in the last days I have to tell you that as we speak the C around the uh Argentinian Embassy under the protection of Brazil has been getting stronger and stronger uh houses of a neighboring houses have been taken by force by the regime uh my colleagues there have almost two weeks without electricity they have caught the service of water limiting food and Medicine no visits whatsoever I mean this is a huge event that should have the attention
of the whole world right now uh it is a sign of desperation Diana it's a sign of weakness and I have to say that Maduro is in his weakest position ever with real fractures between the system the criminal system that forms uh the regime uh regarding the date as you mentioned it's just a week a month in front of us well it will depend it will depend and and basically what also the world does at this point Maduro needs to feel the pressure of the democratic Western U democracies in terms that he must accept that
that the their their regime their days are over and that his best option is a negotiated transition so it will depend on what we all do from here until January 10th now if Venezuela's current leader Nicholas Maduro refuses to step down what does that mean for your movement well I would say what what that would mean in first hand for the whole world I mean we are facing a regime that has turned into the main Ally of the enemies of Western democracies and the US I mean Maduro has open Venezuela territory H for Iranian um
agents for Hezbollah agents that have received uh identities and passports H with with which they have entered the US um Maduro is a most important Ally of Vladimir Putin in Latin America mad has been forcing millions of Venezuela as you mentioned before to flee our country and he's if he prolongs this Agony we will see two three four even more million Venezuelans leaving our country in the next months that is a tragedy that we need to stop if we want to solve the migration issue that you know hurts us so bad we need to go
to the root of the problem to the cost of the problem and people need to feel they have a future in their own country if we manage to have a negotiated transition as it was voted by a landslide on July 28th we will not only see migration flows stopping we will see hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans coming back and having also a democratic uh government that will establish rule of law that will secure property rights we will turn Venezuela from what it is today the criminal Hub of the Americas into the energy Hub of the
Americas a true trustable Ally of the US and the rest of the countries of of this hemisphere in energy Supply not only in oil and gas now president-elect Trump's inauguration day is January 20th just 10 days after venezuel which means this could become an issue for him have you spoken to him about it not not yet not after the election uh we we do have great uh relationss as you know but I would say with both part I mean Venezuela is such a huge issue in terms of national security for the US that has rained
of a partisan issue and you've seen lately in the last hours uh senators from both parties been speaking out really strong in support of our colleagues hold hostages at the um Argentinian Embassy and speaking strongly in terms of what this current Administration should do the the the Biden Administration before it goes and certainly the very important signals that the new Administration the Trump Administration is already H sending I mean naming Marco Rubio as a foreign secretary of state secret Secretary of State I mean it's a huge message for for Latin America I mean he's the
first hispanian um that it's been named in such an important position and also Mike Walsh that's been um named as as the National Security Council has sent strong messages in support of democracy in the whole region I mean this goes beyond Venezuela it has to do with Cuba and Nicaragua believe me these these two regimes stand today because they're supported by Maduro so this is a moment to move forward to give clear messages in terms that the world is not going to turn the page that there have been committed crimes against humanity as the United
Nations have stated uh as we speak Diana the ICC the international criminal court is holding their annual States assembly member states assembly and the investigation regarding the crimes that have been committed by Maduro and his en cour are are you know moving ahead so it is important very important that the world understand that this is a huge opportunity we've never had one such as this in 25 years to turn Venezuela into a true democracy a great Ally of the United States in promoting freedom in opening markets in addressing the energy issue and certainly in getting
rid of those agents that are enemies of our democracies that are acting in in the in in the Americas because of mud's relation with his tyrannies do you think the mudo government is concerned about the incoming Trump Administration oh certainly I think so so Senator Marco Rubio is nominated for Secretary of State he comes from Florida many Venezuelan immigrants there in that state how do you see that impacting these negotiations and in general what are you looking for the world to do to help Venezuela right now well to do what it takes and what's correct
and and what it's also the duty and responsibility of democracies around the world I mean we even SW went into election Diana in conditions that you would never had accepted in any other Democratic country and and we organized H citizens we tear down the barriers the regime had built to divide our country and we won by a landline by 70% of the votes even though as I say they were absolutely unfair conditions so now we have a United Country you know more than 90% of Venezuelans here and abroad want a change and to democracy we
want to have a country that where we can bring our kids back home and turn Venezuela into viant vibrant democracy to attract huge investments in the oil and energy sector in general but many other areas Venezuela will turn as I said in the energy Hub of the Americas but we need you the International Community acting now letting those that have been committed crimes and repressing our population know that they will be held accountable then then you increase the cost of repression you increase the cost of staying in Power by force and then you reach a
point in which that cost of staying by force by violence is higher outweights the cost of a negotiated transition that's the moment where Maduro will sit down and negotiate his exit from power and that's where we need to go get before January 10th and and this is a unique opportunity we've never fac before and everybody's interests are aligned with a democratic transition even those let's say leftwing uh governments that used to be maduro's allies in the past but understand that in order to have political stability in the region we need to solve the Venezuelan crisis
which is the most important one in the Western Hemisphere today Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Cordina masalo we appreciate your time today thank you
