Venezuela’s next president? Miami’s US Reps like Maria Corina Machado’s chances

Republican U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar waited years to speak the words “Nicolás Maduro has been captured.” The trio finally got the chance Saturday evening after the leader of Venezuela was deposed by U.S. armed forces in an overnight raid, using a joint press conference to thank President Donald Trump and project hope for a new, democratic future in the South American nation.

Exactly what that future will look like, and when it will take shape remains cloudy. Trump earlier Saturday said his administration would run the country “until such time as a proper transition can take place.” And he suggested he might be willing to work with Maduro’s vice president.

The three South Florida representatives — key voices in politics given the region’s large Venezuelan community — said they support letting Venezuelans choose their next leader. They said they’re hopeful that will lead to a presidency by Maria Corina Machado, a political leader that earlier Saturday Trump suggested is unfit for the job.

“There will be a new world order,” Giménez told reporters gathered outside Díaz-Balart’s office in Doral, the heart of the U.S. Venezuelan community. “It will be a world order that is bounded by and guided by the principles of liberty and democracy, not tyranny, communism and socialism.”

Early Saturday morning, the United States carried out a large-scale military strike against Venezuela’s socialist regime and captured the strongman Maduro, who was flown out of the country along with his wife. The couple face charges in the United States of running an international drug cartel out of Caracas. The pair arrived Saturday afternoon at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York, where they are expected to appear in federal court in the coming days.

READ MORE: Trump says Maduro captured, flown out of Venezuela after U.S. strikes shake Caracas

Díaz-Balart said Saturday night that he “was convinced that the tyranny in the anti-American, narco-terrorist regime in Venezuela, the tyranny in Cuba and also the tyrannical dictatorship in Nicaragua would not survive another four years” with Trump as president in the United States.

“What we are seeing is that the first of those tyrannies has not survived President Trump,” he said. “The next two? Their days are also [numbered].”

Trump said earlier Saturday the United States will have a large role in running Venezuela until a political transition occurs.

“We are going to run the country until such time as we can see a proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

READ MORE: Trump’s deal to ‘run’ Venezuela after Maduro’s capture sidelines Machado, focuses on oil

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro, was sworn as the country’s new president hours after his capture. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Rodríguez on Saturday, and suggested his administration is willing to work with her to facilitate a transition to a new, post-Maduro government.

Trump remarked that Rodríguez is “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

On opposition leader Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the most visible faces of the anti-Maduro movement, Trump said he did not believe she had the Venezuelan people’s support.

“I think it’d be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said, referring to Machado. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Díaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar, however, said Saturday they want to see the Trump administration facilitate a transition to a government led by someone from outside Maduro’s inner circle. They gave strong support for Machado stepping in as president.

“We know there is an opposition that has been organized by Maria Corina and her party, and they are a legitimate force inside Venezuela,” Salazar said. “So we are supporting her, and we are supporting everything that the opposition forces, on the civil side, decide to do.”

Díaz-Balart said he expects the transition to a new government in Venezuela will be done through democratic means.

“I’m convinced that when there are elections — whether there are new elections or there is a decision to take the old elections, the last election — that the next democratically elected president of Venezuela is going to be Maria Corina” Machado, he said.