Rubio responds to Machado return: Can’t ‘street-protest your way into a democracy’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a warning to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Monday, without explicitly naming her after the exiled Nobel Peace Prize winner returned to her home country.

“You’re not going to street-protest your way into a democracy,” Rubio told reporters, according to Axios.

He also praised her return, saying it was based on “the U.S. supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile.”

Machado vowed to run for president if elections are held next year, telling other opposition leaders in Panama that she will remain committed to Venezuela’s transition of power and to holding free and fair elections.

A White House source told the outlet that the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and subsequent historic oil deal with his interim successor,........

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