Venezuela's exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado drew several thousand supporters Saturday to a rally in Madrid, where the Nobel laureate declined a meeting with Spain's progressive Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on a multicountry European tour.
Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S.
President Donald Trump, was hosting a summit of like-minded progressive leaders from around the world Saturday, while Machado extolled Trump's ouster of Nicolás Maduro in January.
Earlier this year, she presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize.
“What happened in the last few hours at the meeting (Sánchez) held in Barcelona with several leaders and political figures from different countries demonstrates why such a meeting was not advisable,” Machado told reporters Saturday.
Machado insisted at an earlier event she will be returning to Venezuela, but declined to say when, or how, and acknowledged the challenges implicit in a return to her country.
Her multistop European tour, during which she met with the leaders of France, Italy and the Netherlands, comes while Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez has continued in her temporary role, exceeding the 90-day limit initially imposed on it, while the U.S.
government has lifted some sanctions against her.
Machado criticized Rodríguez’s....
