Opposition supporters have long hoped their leaders could replace Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's president. But despite a U.S. military operation to remove and prosecute Maduro, that opposition dream remains unfulfilled. President Donald Trump has sidelined the opposition by allowing Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to take control in the interim. Exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado has praised Trump but has not been embraced by his administration. Machado, who was banned from running for office by the Maduro administration, named Edmundo González as her proxy in Venezuela’s presidential election in 2024 and the U.S. and other nations recognized him as the winner. Nonetheless, the future of Venezuela's democratic transition is uncertain.
