Venezuela: Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says US backs 2027 election

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Thursday that the country was moving towards a US-prescribed presidential election in 2027, in her first public remarks since returning from 10 months in exile . Calling the transition to democracy "irreversible," Machado said, " US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has laid out a sequence of steps for moving toward a democratic transition that includes ​presidential elections in 2027." "The date of the election is the date of liberation," Machado said in Caracas after returning home following 10 months in exile. Machado also reiterated that her priorities included dismantling the country's repressive system and securing the release of the thousands of political prisoners .