Trump denies having prevented opposition leader from going to Venezuela after earthquake

” NNo, not at all. How would I tell you that?” Trump replied on Wednesday to journalists aboard Air Force One during the flight back to Washington from Turkey after the NATO summit.

The head of state praised Machado and recalled that Venezuelan offered him the Nobel Peace Prize medal as a symbol of their relationship.

The reaction arose after last week Axios released information from sources of the US Administration that classified Machado’s attempt to return to the country as a “grotesque act of political opportunism”.

According to this report, senior White House officials expressed discomfort with the opposition’s plans, considering that they generated “unnecessary drama” within the State Department.

“I’m coming back. Not as an event, but as a promise that is fulfilled step by step, because my place is there with you. And when we meet, we will raise this country from the same side we’ve always been on,” Machado wrote on social network X on Tuesday.

On 29 June, Machado released a video in which he claimed to be in Panama after seeing the frustrated return to Venezuela, accusing the Venezuelan government of preventing it.

However, at the time, The Wall Street newspaper pointed out that it was the U.S. Administration that pressured the Venezuelan opposition leader to dismiss the return to Venezuela.

The number of deaths by earthquakes from two weeks ago in Venezuela rose this Wednesday to 3,811, while the number of wounded remained at 16,740, equal to the Sunday balance, according to official data. The increase in fatalities was 126 people.

The president of the Parliament of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, indicated at a meeting with the interim head of state, Delcy Rodríguez, that 17,907 people were homeless after the double earthquake, with 6,462 rescued since Thursday.