Venezuela’s Nobel laureate urges Maduro to cede power peacefully

Nicolas Maduro’s time is up but he can still leave power peacefully, Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said in an interview from hiding on Monday.

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 Agence France-Presse as a flotilla of US warships 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.”