Months before the US military on President Donald Trump’s instructions captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Nobel Peace laureate and opposition leader María Corina Machado had batted for what she called the most ambitious economic transformation in Venezuela’s history through a sweeping privatisation policy.
Speaking in 2025 at Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh virtually, Machado had called for reversing Maduro’s policies via privatisation, an opportunity she said was worth $1.7 trillion.
She described Maduro’s policies as “the disaster this socialist system has wrought.”
Speaking from hiding, Machado in June 2025 had envisioned a bold policy to revive Venezuela’s economy with large-scale private investment.
“Venezuela will be the single biggest economic opportunity for decades to come in this region,” she told at the 2025 Fortune forum, weeks after winning the Nobel Peace Price that year, which was also being eyed by Trump at the time.
“We’re talking about an opportunity, business opportunity, of more than $1.7 trillion. This is unique,” Machado, who won the Nobel Peace prize for her decades-long fight to restore the democracy in Venezuela, had said.
She had floated the $1.7 trillion economy bet before, an estimate her economic advisory team has put together.
On June 12 last year, Machado had predicted a historic economic and democratic transformation of Venezuela.
“Venezuela is on the brink of a historic transformation, offering the greatest opportunity for democracy, security, and investment in Latin America,” she said at an event hosted by the Council of the Americas.
Machado’s privatisation blueprint
At the core of María Corina Machado’s transformation plan for Venezuela is a quick and transparent process of privatisation.
According to the opposition leader, over 500 estimated companies were “taken by the regime, confiscated, destroyed, but the infrastructure is there.”
She promised strict oversight and rule of law from “day one,” a move to lure back investors with fiscal stability and incentives, along with a pledge to open the market to companies.
Machado also vowed an “absolutely strict” approach in terms of rule of law and transparency.
Speaking at the forum, Machado also pointed out the vast oil potential of Venezuela and the fact that the country was the eighth largest in terms of natural gas reserves.
“…but currently our people don’t even have gas even to cook. That’s a disaster.”
Bloomberg had in 2024 reported that Venezuelans were resorting to wood from their furniture to cook food. “The socialist system has rotted,” Machado said.
The investment promise
Machado vowed from her virtual seat that she would welcome responsible private investment from “all over the world”, including Europe, US, China and the Middle East.
“I want you to know that I am absolutely convinced that we’re moving into a transition that is going to be orderly. Venezuela is a cohesive society, we have no tensions, racial, religious, social, political, and 90% of our country wants the same, to live with dignity, with justice, certainly with freedom, and we want to bring our kids back home,” she said.