Sawt Falasteen - Venezuelan Nobel winner says Maduro will leave power 'with or without' talks

Offering a barbed olive branch to Venezuela's long-lasting leader, 58-year-old Machado said President Maduro could get personal guarantees if he were to cede power.

"Maduro currently has the opportunity to move toward a peaceful transition," the opposition figurehead told AFP as a flotilla of US gunboats amassed off the coast of Venezuela.

"We are ready to offer guarantees, guarantees that we will not make public until we are sitting at that negotiation table.

"If he continues to resist, the consequences will be entirely his responsibility," she warned. But "with or without negotiation, he will leave power."

Machado admitted to still being shocked about her long-shot Nobel win last week.

"It was one of the biggest surprises of my life, and I have to admit that even today, three days later, I'm still processing it."

But she hopes to leverage her win -- along with mounting pressure from the United States -- to oust a government that has been in power for more than a quarter of a century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

Machado said guarantees would also be offered to those who help facilitate a transition, including the military, which is vital to the regime's survival.

"This message has been sent to the entire structure of the armed forces, police, and public employees," Machado said.

"More and more, they (military personnel) are reaching out and providing us with information," she added.

Asked whether she envisions an uprising, she replied: "We all -- civilians and military -- have a role to play."

- Gunboat diplomacy -

Machado declined to speculate on a possible US military intervention.

In August, Washington deployed eight warships to the area, the biggest military buildup in the Western Hemisphere since the US invasion of Panama in 1989.

To date, the Trump administration has struck four boats it claimed were being used for drug trafficking, with a toll of at least 21 deaths.

Several sources close to the US government indicate imminent strikes targeting inside Venezuela.

Maduro has branded Machado a "demonic witch" and accused her of calling for a foreign invasion.

She deflected detailed questions about her contacts with Washington, but said she maintains "fluid communication" with Washington and governments across Latin America and Europe.

Machado said her Nobel win and the massive US military deployment off Venezuela's coast put the regime in crisis.

"They know we are in a final and decisive phase. In recent hours, several comrades have been arrested, and repression is intensifying."

"It's a way for the regime to appear strong, but they know the Nobel and the deployment were a fatal blow," Machado said.

"The whole world knows they were soundly defeated. We have proven our victory," she added, referring to the 2024 presidential election.

The opposition claims to have collected vote tallies proving its win and the regime's fraud.

The National Electoral Council, widely seen as controlled by the government, declared Maduro the winner without releasing detailed results, citing a cyberattack.

- 'We're in a countdown' -

"The one who declared war on Venezuelans is Nicolas Maduro," Machado said.

She accused the regime of being infiltrated by foreign allies: "The real invasion here is by Cubans, Russians, Iranians, Hezbollah, Hamas, drug cartels, and the FARC guerrilla."

"We Venezuelans don't have firearms. We have our voice, civic organization, pressure, and denunciation," she said.

Machado dedicated her Nobel to "the suffering Venezuelan people" and to US President Donald Trump.

"There's a broad consensus among Venezuelans to recognize President Trump for what we see as just and necessary," she claimed.

"It's a message to show how much Venezuela needs his leadership and the international coalition that has formed."

Machado said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the opposition considers the rightful winner of the 2024 election, has publicly asked her to serve as vice president.

"I'll be wherever I can be most useful to our country," she said.

On her time in hiding since the election, she concluded: "I'm not counting the days -- I'm subtracting the ones that remain."

"I have no doubt we're in a countdown," she said.

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST