'Will not participate': Nobel laureate Machado rejects US-backed Venezuela talks

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado rejected US-backed talks with the de facto government of Delcy Rodriguez scheduled for August.

Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia co-signed a statement saying the opposition would 'not participate' in the 'design, development and operation' of the talks.

The talks were initiated by the interim government of Delcy Rodriguez and former opposition lawmakers to 'strengthen democracy' in Venezuela.

The US had previously ousted former president Nicolas Maduro in a military raid in January and supported the initiative as a step toward political reconciliation.

Machado defended Gonzalez Urrutia's victory in the disputed 2024 presidential elections, which Maduro won amid fraud allegations.