Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado detailed how former President Nicolás Maduro prevented her from appearing on the ballot during an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News aired on January 5, 2026.
In the interview, Hannity referenced Machado’s overwhelming victory in the 2023 opposition primary, where she won 92% of the vote, and asked how Maduro was able to bar her from the ballot. Machado responded: “Well because they absolutely control the unitary system and also the electoral council so it was a miracle everybody told us it was impossible to carry independent elections in a primary process and we were able to bring the country together to carry these elections organized by civil society with millions of people participating.”
She continued, emphasizing Maduro’s motivations: “And the fact is that cowardly he feared us. He feared me, Maduro, so he thought that by banning me, he would stop us from winning but exactly the opposite happened. Edmundo González Urrutia standing in my place and we moved all around the country and managed to bring a country together and defeated Maduro by a landslide.”
Machado’s comments highlight the challenges faced by the opposition in organizing primaries under the Maduro regime and how their efforts led to a significant electoral victory despite the ban. A clip of the interview shared by Sean Hannity on X captures this exchange.
The discussion comes in the wake of the U.S. military operation on January 3, 2026, which resulted in Maduro’s capture, marking a turning point in Venezuela’s political landscape.
Machado, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2025 for her work in promoting democracy in Venezuela, has been a key figure in the opposition movement.
This report is based solely on the verified interview content, associated video clip, and publicly available facts regarding Venezuela’s 2023 opposition primary and recent events.
