Venezue­lan Op­po­si­tion Leader Maria Co­ri­na Macha­do has de­clared that “the hour of free­dom has ar­rived,” claim­ing that Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro now faces in­ter­na­tion­al jus­tice for crimes com­mit­ted against Venezue­lans and cit­i­zens of oth­er na­tions.

In a state­ment dat­ed Jan­u­ary 3, Macha­do said the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment had act­ed af­ter Maduro re­fused a ne­go­ti­at­ed ex­it, de­scrib­ing the move as the en­force­ment of the rule of law. She said the mo­ment marked the re­turn of pop­u­lar and na­tion­al sov­er­eign­ty and pledged the restora­tion of or­der, the re­lease of po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, and the re­turn of Venezue­lan chil­dren liv­ing abroad.

Macha­do said years of strug­gle had led to what she de­scribed as a de­ci­sive turn­ing point for the coun­try, adding that cit­i­zens who risked every­thing for democ­ra­cy on Ju­ly 28 now had a man­date to act.