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Months before the U.S. military arrested Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, opposition leader María Corina Machado called for what she described as the most ambitious economic transformation in the nation’s history—a sweeping privatization aimed at reversing his policies and what she calls “the disaster this socialist system has wrought.”
Appearing virtually on the Fortune Global Forum stage in Riyadh, Machado, while in hiding from the Maduro regime, unveiled a bold vision to rebuild Venezuela’s shattered economy through large-scale private investment.
“Venezuela will be the single biggest economic opportunity for decades to come in this region,” she told Fortune’s Diane Brady at the forum’s 2025 edition, weeks after winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long fight to restore democracy to Venezuela. “We’re talking about an opportunity, business opportunity, of more than $1.7 trillion. This is unique.” Machado has floated the $1.7 trillion figure before, an estimate produced by her economic advisory team.
Machado painted a stark picture of a nation that has plummeted from prosperity to poverty: “a country that used to be the richest country in our region and the freest country in our region, and that has turned into one of the poorest.” Being under socialist rule for decades, she said, has crippled industry, devastated infrastructure, and triggered an exodus of nearly a third of Venezuela’s population. “Our economy has collapsed. It’s been over 80% down in the last [several] years,” she said. “Our people have been forced to flee just to survive.”
The International Monetary Fund estimated Venezuela’s economy had declined by roughly 75% as of late 2022, also covering its migrant crisis. The left-wing think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research argued shortly afterward that, while this figure was accurate, it discounted the severe economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Venezuela for many years.
The opposition leader described to Brady what she called a “narco-terrorist state” built on repression and corruption, saying that “certainly Venezuela has turned into a safe haven for criminal activities from all over the world.” She accused Maduro and his allies of financing their grip on power through gold smuggling, arms and drug trafficking, and human exploitation.
At the core of Machado’s plan is a rapid and transparent privatization process. She estimates that more than 500 enterprises were “taken by the regime, confiscated, destroyed, but the infrastructure is there.” She pledged strict oversight and rule of law from “day one,” aiming to lure investors back with stability and fiscal incentives. She pledged open markets and an approach that would be “absolutely strict” in terms of rule of law and transparency, reminding Brady that Venezuela is currently in last place in terms of rule of law. To take one example, the World Justice Project recently ranked Venezuela No. 142, out of 142 countries.
