Photo composition showing María Corina Machado next to a drone and a Star of David. Photo: Orinoco Tribune.
Venezuelan far-right opposition politician, María Corina Machado, has made a number of statements directly aimed at giving the US empire reasons to take military action against Venezuela amid global upheaval caused by the Israeli colony’s aggression against Iran. “Venezuela is a real threat to the hemisphere and the US,” she said. “It is the only country in the hemisphere, other than the US, capable of building Iranian-made combat drones [i.e., making drones using technical support from Iran].”
An excerpt from an interview with Miami-based journalist Napoleón Bravo this Thursday, June 19, published by @ConVzlaComando—the official X account of the so-called “comanditos” organized by Machado and the Vente Venezuela movement—reads in part: “For the West to be saved, the first step is to understand that the greatest risk is working here in Venezuela, and it cannot be contained within our borders.” Machado details that by “the greatest risk,” she was referring to the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado is known for vehemently supporting the Zionist colonial project, as well as Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party. Last year, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning Netanyahu’s interventionist statements regarding the July 28 presidential elections and Machado’s surrogate candidate, Edmundo González. Additionally, Machado signed a letter in 2018 addressed to Netanyahu requesting Israeli military intervention in Venezuela.
Far-right Venezuelan politician Maria Machado actually begging the US to put her own country in the hitting list. It is clear how close she is to oust Maduró 😂🥴🤪:
“Venezuela is a real threat to the hemisphere and the United States. It is the only country in the hemisphere,… https://t.co/73Cs2RZI1G
— Orinoco Tribune (@OrinocoTribune) June 19, 2025
“Who is Putin’s greatest ally in Latin America? Nicolás Maduro,” Machado said. “Who is the Iranian regime’s greatest ally in Latin America? Nicolás Maduro. More than 400 agreements have been signed between Venezuela and Iran. Venezuela is the only other country in the Western Hemisphere, besides the United States, that has the capacity to build combat drones, obviously of Iranian origin. It operates here, at the Libertador Base.”
“Venezuela is hours away from Florida, not Tehran,” she continued, manufacturing false consent for an invasion of sovereign Venezuelan territory. “And you tell me if, in a context like the one we’re living in, this isn’t a real threat.”
She then said that more than 10,000 Venezuelan passports have supposedly been given to Syrians and Iranians, and that large amounts of Venezuelan gold are sent to Iran to fund Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who, in turn, “send weapons” to Venezuela. “To dismantle the networks of Iran and Islamic terrorism, we must dismantle the operations taking place in Venezuela,” she added.
Her statements come five days after the Israeli settler military and its intelligence apparatus, Mossad, began a military attack against Iran, launching numerous missiles and drones, allegedly aimed at preventing the advancement of its nuclear program. Iran retaliated a few hours later with a counterattack using ballistic missiles and drones against military and intelligence facilities. The mutual attacks have continued daily since June 12, while the government of the US colonial entity, which supports the Israeli settler entity with weapons and resources, debates whether to directly enter the confrontation themselves.
Machado’s organization, Vente Venezuela, signed a cooperation agreement with the Israeli entity’s Likud party in 2020. For many analysts, this provides further evidence of Machado’s adherence to the Zionist colonial project.
Heavy rejection from Venezuelan public
Machado’s statements generated immense outcry on social media, from people of all political ideologies:
• “Why are you lying? Argentina and Brazil have the capacity to manufacture armed drones […] stop lying, damn it. You’re putting us in danger,” wrote @RobertoStekman5.
• “This claim is not only reckless, but false. Argentina, Brazil, and México have combat drones. What are they after? To convince Trump to bomb Caracas? Wasn’t it enough to stigmatize our migrants? How many Venezuelan lives could this irresponsibility cost?” wrote Francisco Rodríguez @frrodriguezc.
• “Not only is what she says false, as she always does, but the only one who has alliances with a murderous regime is her, who made alliances with Likud, Netanyahu’s party, responsible for murdering more than 30,000 children in Gaza in less than two years,” wrote Venezuelan journalist Karen Méndez.
• “This woman once again demonstrates that she is disastrous and anti-Venezuelan. Now she intends to revive the narrative of Venezuela as an Iranian enclave in the Western Hemisphere, to see if they invade or bomb us and she can become president,” wrote @zhandraflores.
• “I listen to her and I can’t believe it. Venezuela 🇻🇪 is a threat to the world’s greatest power 🇺🇸? The sad thing is that the far right, which supports Trump, and the crazy people in Miami believe it. It doesn’t make sense!” wrote journalist Carlos Montero @CMonteroOficial.
• “Galactic level irresponsibility […] the inconsistencies of the Venezuelan elite opposition go from saying that all Venezuelan state companies are inefficient and that the State is not capable of manufacturing even a yo-yo, to now saying that we have state-of-the-art technology to make drones,” wrote @LaDivinaDiva.
• “Ms. Machado’s archive of irresponsible statements is enormous, but with this she has crossed the line,” wrote Francisco Lestón Gómez @LestonGomez.
• “This woman lost everything. With this statement, she finally fell from grace. And it’s not a matter of Chavismo and the opposition; it’s an issue that endangers Venezuelans who, day after day, have hope of moving ahead. Bullets won’t recognize which political party you belong to,” wrote Marvin Mijares @MarvinBeisbol.
• “This woman is irresponsible. I’m not a Chavista, and in the name of political struggle, you can’t pretend to create an unfavorable situation for the nation and its citizens. By the way, where’s the end of it? Manipulative,” wrote @Rubdar7.
• “Trying to jump on the bandwagon of the conflict with Iran, apart from being futile, is synonymous with how weakened the Venezuelan opposition is. The fact that MCM’s strategy now focuses on saying anything in an attempt to get the US to pay attention to Venezuela speaks volumes about the disparity in power between the opposition and Chavismo,” wrote Carlos Rodríguez López, a staunch opposition supporter who often calls the Venezuelan government a “dictatorship.”
• “This is bordering on the absurd and endangering the peace of Venezuela! To stoop so low as to lie with the intention of having a foreign country murder your family, friend, neighbor, even your own life is unacceptable! This is no longer politicking, this is false flag terrorism!” wrote Nakary Palmar.
• “It’s reprehensible to get everyone into this mess, while she was mysteriously able to get her family out, recover the company expropriated from her father (Sivensa) […] it suits them to be eternal opposition politicians,” wrote @americas1089.
• “They’re all running out of stories. Ma’am, take your pill and and yield,” wrote @jaimegquintana.
• “In his desperation to be relevant again, he borders on the ridiculous,” wrote Lucia González @grluci.
• “A threat to the hemisphere? I’m not a Chavista at all, but what is this lady smoking? A threat of what? […] this world has gone crazy,” wrote @Literatureandmo.
(Alba Ciudad) by Luigino Bracci Roa with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
