{"text":[[{"start":9.48,"text":"Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said the country’s people were feeling “sadness, anger and unease” at a new energy agreement between Washington and Caracas but stopped short of directly criticising Donald Trump’s administration."}],[{"start":24.08,"text":"Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize winner living in exile, broke her silence over the agreement reached last week — under which the Pentagon will take a 35 per cent stake in a Venezuelan oil company — to say it had caused “deep concern” and had still not been properly explained."}],[{"start":40.28,"text":"“We still don’t know the true scope of the agreement,” she said. “Who signed it? What did they really sign? Who is putting up the money? Who is providing guarantees? How does this benefit the Venezuelan people?”"}],[{"start":53.2,"text":"But she also said the US was the “key partner” that Venezuela needed to develop its oil industry and that this view was supported by a majority of people in the country."}],[{"start":62.64,"text":"Her comments reflect outrage among many Venezuelans, especially those connected to the opposition, at a deal that gives control of 17 oilfields containing one-fifth of the country’s reserves to North American Blue Energy Partners, a company owned by polarising businessman Alejandro Betancourt."}],[{"start":80.48,"text":"Within Venezuela, Betancourt is one of the best-known Bolichicos, the group of politically connected businesspeople who became extremely wealthy under the government of the late Hugo Chávez and whom the opposition has long denounced as corrupt."}],[{"start":94.76,"text":"After remaining silent for almost a week since the deal first emerged, Machado’s carefully calibrated response also reflects the opposition’s deeply uncomfortable position."}],[{"start":104.56,"text":"Machado supported the US military’s January raid that captured former president Nicolás Maduro, who now awaits trial in the US on drug-trafficking charges, which he denies."}],[{"start":115.58,"text":"But rather than support early elections, the US is working closely with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice-president who has taken on the role of interim president, including on the deal involving Betancourt’s company."}],[{"start":127.12,"text":"In the hours following the raid on January 3, Trump said Machado had “no support” in Venezuela. In an attempt to win the president’s favour, Machado in January gave him her Nobel Prize medal."}],[{"start":139.04,"text":"Although political dialogue continues to discuss new elections, some members of the opposition believe the Trump administration will become more reluctant to support a democratic transition because it may fear a new government would seek to overturn the deal with Betancourt."}],[{"start":153.88,"text":"Asked on Wednesday why Washington was not pressing Rodríguez to set a date for an election, the US president said: “I just don’t think they’re ready yet,” he said. “You know, it’s very new.”"}],[{"start":164.36,"text":"“We took them out of a dictatorship and we’re getting along great with the government,” Trump said, adding that Rodríguez was “doing a very, very good job”."}],[{"start":172.52,"text":"Amid criticism of the deal, including from the large Venezuelan population in the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday gave an interview to a Venezuelan journalist in Miami to defend the initiative."}],[{"start":184.42,"text":"He said that Venezuela needed to have elections eventually, but that it was important to revive the economy first. “We don’t want a new government to inherit a country that is destabilised . . . and is in a situation of crisis,” he told Sergio Novelli."}],[{"start":198.62,"text":"Venezuela last held elections in 2024 when Maduro declared himself the victor — even though the opposition’s independently verified vote tally showed he lost by a margin of two-to-one. Machado, who had been barred from running, masterminded the campaign to defeat Maduro, with Edmundo González Urrutia standing in her place as the opposition candidate."}],[{"start":218.56,"text":"Américo de Grazia, an opposition politician who is not part of Machado’s movement, said that “Venezuela is in no position to set conditions” with Washington after 27 years of hostility between the two countries since Chávez came to power."}],[{"start":231.64,"text":"“We set out to defy ‘the devil,’ but now the devil has been let inside, and we don’t know what to do with him,” he said. “We’re used to Trump’s lies by now, especially around elections. He plays the hero to look better and boost poll numbers that clearly aren’t going his way.”"}],[{"start":248.16,"text":"Machado said that it was important that economic ties between the US and Venezuela were “done right”. That included clear legal rules, independent institutions that supervised the oil industry and open, public tenders for new concessions, she said."}],[{"start":268.44,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1788485907_5558.mp3"}