pulled out of the explain why he has pulled out of the presidential race, which he did on sunday, but this�*ll be the first time we've heard from him in his own words why he has done it. don't forget, you'll be able to watch that live here on bbc news at one a.m. and our coverage will start in an hour's time. we will have a full bulletin of news at the top of the hour. but first, it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm sarah montague. venezuela's election this weekend could see president nicolas maduro voted out after more than a decade of his authoritarian socialist rule. at least, that's according to the polls, which put the opposition parties 20 points ahead. my guest today, maria corina machado, should have been their candidate. but as institutions loyal to the government have blocked her from standing, she backed the relatively unknown retired diplomat edmundo gonzalez

to stand in her place. with the country's economy in ruins and more than a quarter of the population having fled, could the next few days change the fortunes of this oil—rich but very troubled nation? maria corina machado, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. can your coalition win this election? absolutely, yes. we have never before had so much strength, support all over the country

and organisation to defend every single vote next sunday. so if your coalition does win it, what role will you have in the new government? well, that is for the next president to say. but it is important that everybody knows that we are a team, we're working together, we trust each other, and i will be serving my country all the way in this transition process until we can build up strong democratic institutions in venezuela. edmundo gonzalez, the candidate, has said, "she will have whatever role she desires in the government." so what is the role you want? i think it is too early to say. we are living day by day. first of all, we're concentrated in this huge, unique, epic event that will change not only the history of venezuela but the whole region.

it is important to understand that there's no single other conflict in the western hemisphere more important than what is taking place in venezuela, and certainly we're facing a tyranny which has produced, as you say, the exodus of over a quarter of our population, that has violated all human rights, committed crimes against humanity, but at the same time has ties with russia, with iran, and that's trying to destabilise the region. so this is an event, as i say, that impacts beyond our frontiers or our borders and should have the attention and support of all democrats around the world. ok, but to come back to what people are actually voting for, are they voting for edmundo gonzalez — someone who isn't widely known — or are they voting for you? they are voting for a cause, for the values we represent. certainly i had a huge responsibility, and i received

a mandate when we won the primaries with over 90% of the votes last october. but the country has to understand clearly that these obstacles the regime has put, we have to find ways to overcome them. and that's how edmundo gonzalez appeared and he has been, you know, an incredible candidate, even though he had no previous experience. and people trust when i ask them to support him. and we're being very clear, very transparent in terms that he will be the president and certainly he will have the legitimacy of this huge, massive vote with a huge, historic turnout that we will have next sunday. ok, but ijust want to be clear. i mean, did you choose him, as you say, because he has no political history, did you choose him because you will act as president in a new government? is that the plan? absolutely not.

that would be an insult to him and to the venezuelan people. but he will do what you... one imagines — i mean, when you went to him and you asked him to stand and you gave him your support, there was some understanding that he is going to be doing what you want. the understanding is that he will be doing what is correct, what the venezuelan people need. and certainly we share values and ideas. but he will be an independent president, certainly. and he knows he has my support, because we will be leaving perhaps the most complex and delicate transition in the history of this hemisphere, because as you know, and you were mentioning before, venezuela has no institutions standing today. and there will be huge, great expectations for change and results in a very short term from the people that will vote. so this would require a huge, huge and wide government that will involve every single sector.

and that's what we are planning to do. and we should be clear that you have been blocked from standing because you have been accused of fraud, just so that people understand why you're in the situation that you are. something one imagines that if the coalition were elected, that they could just immediately overturn. look, i've been accused of almost every single crime. every single crime. i've been banned from leaving my country for over ten years. i'm not allowed to get in a plane, even private planes to move around my country. when i move with my car, streets and avenues are blocked. i cannot even rent a room in a hotel to stay over in any city around the country, because they are sanctioned and closed. i cannot even buy food in the road, because the restaurants are penalised. i cannot appear on national tv or radio for over ten years. i mean, this has been a huge

campaign against us. my closest members of our team, of our campaign team are either in jail or under protection at the argentinian embassy, because they were — they had warrants to detain them, accused of horrible things, absurd conspirations. because the regime thinks that doing this kind of aggression, they will get people afraid and stop participating. but this has been huge. i mean, we are faced with a true social movement that goes beyond an electoral struggle. and there is a human rights ngo, foro penal, which has kept a tally of what it calls political prisoners, saying more than 100 people linked to your campaign have been detained. you say that while you were out campaigning last week, your car was vandalised, the oil was drained, the brake hose was cut. i just wonder, given all that,

why you are so confident that the elections will be free and fair. because fear and lies are not working any more. the chavismo has totally lost their social support. i mean, the base of support has eroded, has simply crumbled. and what we are seeing is a society coming back together, because we all share one desire. we want to have our kids back home, and this is something that every single person around the country tells me. even people that come from the chavismo, even the military that stopped me at the checkpoints, the poorest and the people that are well—doing, we all want to have our country and our family back together, and chavismo is being seen not only as a collapse, but as the past. and maduro, the only thing that he has left is violence and it's not working. and even though we have no

resources, no media, no support, no vehicles, no transportation, what has happened in these last months, as i say, it's a huge social movement that understands that this is a unique opportunity to save venezuelan families. and so you are seeing people willing to do absolutely extraordinary things — walk 5—7 hours under the rain or sun just to meet me in huge rallies, to embrace each other. and this is very powerful and has turned, and i want to insist this in a unique platform to defend every single vote, done it with volunteers and people that are willing to stay there as they are as long as it takes, but to respect the will of the venezuelan people and that will prevail. and so whatever the result is, will you respect it? the result should be respected by maduro and should be accompanied

by the international community. as you mentioned, every single serious poll states that edmundo has over 30, even a0 points in the gap. and this is growing. there's no way they can under... you know, reduce that unless they commit huge fraud, huge fraud, obscene fraud. and we are fighting to prove that and to show it. and that's why it's so important to have international observers, most of which the regime has blocked from coming. but i'm not clear. if you don't win, will you accept that? we will accept the truth. we will defend the truth. and we have to insist that we have every single organisation or institution in the country right now allied or controlled by the regime, talking

about the military, the police and the electoral system. so this is a huge fight of the venezuelan citizens, society defending its right against the whole system. but believe me, the system is cracking for the first time in 25 years. and that's why it's so important that we have international media, a few international observers, and certainly people that are guests, that are coming because they understand how important it is that the world understands, understands what truly happens in venezuela next sunday. but the national electoral council set up an agreement which maduro and seven other countries signed, candidates signed, but edmundo gonzalez did not sign it. this was about accepting the result. why did he not, why did your party not? first of all, what we've seen

in the past is the electoral council does not comply with its own rules and just comes up with a result that is not a reflection of what truly happens. and we will not come to the point to say unless we have the tally sheets, unless they respect the right to have our observers in every single poll, unless they do not block the right for a response to vote, we will not accept what they say, which is clearly a violation of the process. we will respect the truth. and i have to say that all those candidates that you mentioned are not opposition candidates. those are candidates that are part of a phoney system maduro has created. ok, so from the sounds of it, you will only accept... the only outcome you will accept is a win for your party. we know that president maduro had — he was reported by cnn to be saying, if they do not want venezuela

to fall into a bloodbath, into a fratricidal civil war, the ruling party must win the presidential elections. it makes one wonder what happens. let me be very clear. first of all, we will accept and defend the truth of what happens next sunday. that's what we will do. defend the vote of every single venezuelans. and we will do that based on a process which allows us to have citizens in every single polling station with access to the tally sheets, which we will report, first of all. secondly, maduro has been threatening for years — and i would say chavez did, as well — that we face a dilemma. either they would stay or it would be violence — submission or violence. and that's not true. our choice is freedom.

and what they are saying, threatened with violence, is a message directed mostly to the international community to accept a fraudulent result. unless they would — because they would provoke war or violence. look, to have a war, you need an enemy. and we have no enemies in venezuela. our country has come together. we want peace — peace and freedom. and that's what we will achieve next sunday. so the vote is on sunday, the inauguration is not untiljanuary. that's a six—month handover. what is the role of the military in this? how do you think they should be behaving? you've called on them to guarantee a legitimate and orderly transition, but they have historically seen to be — president maduro says they are loyal to him. that's a very important question, and nobody can answer it completely. i do believe, and that's what i'm

watching in my constant contact around the country when i travel, by car, that the base of the military, as it has happened in the rest of the country, are longing for change. they have mothers, sisters, children that are also in hunger or fleeing the country. and we're starting to see more and more people, not only from the military and the police and even the ruling party reaching out to us, asking how this transition process will involve them. and we're giving guarantees that this will be an open process in which everybody that complies with our constitution and the law can be part of it, and giving them assurances that we will not reproduce persecution or revenge as this system has done in the past.

we will open arms and hearts for a new venezuela that will arise, in which we will all be equal in front of the law. and i believe that we will see the military and i trust they will simply comply and respect what the constitutions — our constitution — expect from them — to be vigilant and to respect the will of the people that overwhelmingly and massively will vote next sunday for edmundo gonzalez and a peaceful transition to democracy in venezuela. you talk about that. benjamin gedan, who's a former south america director on national security at the white house and runs the wilson center's latin american programme, said it's wishful thinking to imagine the election will produce overnight democratisation. he seemed to suggest that the best—case scenario was a very complex, uncertain

but still promising political transition that could even take years. do you accept that? certainly, i'm the first one who insists in the complexity of the challenges we face and how profound the destruction of our institutions and economy has gone, has happened with these two decades of chavismo. but i also heard that kind of scepticism last year when we were facing the primary and said that there would be no way the venezuelan people would arise again and get together in a single candidate, or even be days away from an election that we will win. so venezuelans have done miracles in the past, and believe me, the energy to recover our country and to bring ourfamily back will be huge and we will see people working hard in order to turn this huge potential our country has

into a welfare for and wellbeing for every single family. let's talk about what you would like to do in power in a moment. but first, will president maduro be offered an amnesty? because he's facing charges by the usjustice department that date from 2020, where he was indicted on narco—terrorism, cocaine dealing campaign against the us. should he be offered an amnesty if you win? we have repeatedly offered maduro to engage in a serious negotiation with us that would be — give guarantees and incentives for a peaceful transition. the content and specific issues that will be part of this negotiation, we will be dealt in a private manner, as you can understand.

so, what, you have had negotiations? well, there have been negotiations certainly that brought to the signing of the barbados agreement last october. the problem was that this part of the agreement, we comply with every single element that we signed and we're committed to. but the regime violated, once again. i'm talking specifically about an amnesty, because there have also been talks involving the us in qatar. is it your understanding that there have been talks about a possible amnesty for president maduro? we will certainly not get into specifics at this point. ok, but you're not ruling it out? we have decided that every negotiation will take place with the right, uh, representatives of each side and done in a serious and convenient manner so that we will move ahead as fast as we can, as orderly

and sustainable as it is needed. ok, so let's assume that you take power. are you going to privatise what are the largest oil reserves in the world in venezuela? i certainly believe that we have to open to private markets. there's no way the state can take advantage of that. we have no resources. they were all robbed. and we have the potential to turn venezuela into the energy hub of the americas. today, venezuela is in the last place, worldly — globally — in terms of rule of law. no—one will invest the amount venezuela requires to make use not only of our oil and gas, but also in a renewable capacity in energy. no—one is... you will open up the oil markets and privatise them? absolutely, we will open it. gradually move along direction. and not only oil and gas.

we will do that in mining, in infrastructure, in communication. i mean, we have to open markets and bring huge investments that will turn into employment and wellbeing for the venezuelan people, certainly. you come from a very wealthy family. you were educated abroad. you spent time in your family's mountain retreat when you were young. you said yourself it was a childhood protected from reality. as people listen to you here talking about privatising the natural wealth of venezuela, how confident can they be that you will look after them, that you will act for them? listen to me. we have had 25 years of chavismo socialism. if there is one society that wants open market and freedom, that doesn't want to have the results of state controlling your life is the venezuelan people.

and for me, it's amazing to see that even more — the more the people are from popular sectors or farmers are the most that value private property. and when you ask public employees in the old sector or others for whom you would want to work, they unanimously answer they want to work for a private company, for a private sector, because they see the difference not only in wages but in social protection. so i believe this is a unique moment in which we want a wealthy society. yes, that's what we want. we want the state under society, and not the other way around. and the price to learn this has been high, very high in suffering for the venezuelan people. well, you talk about — sorry — you talk about the number of people who have fled the country to go overseas. you have three children outside the country who you haven't been able to see for some time,

because you're not allowed to leave the country. if you do win, is one of the first things you'll do is to reunite with them? i have one — and two boys, and certainly the first thing i will do is call them and tell them it's time to come home. do you think that will be going on in a lot of families? oh, yes. not only that, there are a lot of people — it's perhaps what i hear the most nowadays — young people coming up to me and telling me, "i don't want to go. i don't want to leave." women that tell me, "this is my last child here." and, you know, grabbing them. grandparents telling me have only known my grandchildren through a whatsapp, you know, screen, and this could be the last chance they have to meet them before they die. so that's why this has turned for venezuelans much more than an electoral issue.

this has turned into a real spiritual struggle, and that has brought the country together. so this is very powerful. this goes beyond the election. it's a movement for redemption and for freedom. and perhaps you have to be venezuelan to understand it. but believe me, that's why i'm so confident that a result will be a better country in which we will all be together. maria corina machado, thank you for coming on hardtalk. thank you very much.

hello. we've got a fairly humid and moist air mass with us at the moment. that's bringing quite a lot of low cloud, some mist and some murk around as we start thursday. generally through the day, it's going to continue to feel fairly humid — some spells of sunshine, but also a chance of some rain for some of us. now, across southern counties of england, you can see a bit of rain likely here, particularly through the morning hours in the south—west, probably going to push into the south—east of england by the afternoon. some of that could be quite heavy. a few scattered showers further north, particularly so for northern ireland and for scotland too, especially in the north and the west. but in between these two areas, quite a lot of dry weather. in the sunnier spells, temperatures up to about 2k celsius, but i think most of us, we're looking at about 16—22. now, into thursday evening, some more spells of rain moving through the english channel, affecting southern counties of england for a time. some scattered showers continue to move in from the north. but the cloud moves away towards the south—east, so still a reasonably humid night across parts of east anglia and the south—east — 15 celsius or so.

but most of us, a cooler, fresher feel to friday morning, and that fresher air will continue to roll in on a westerly breeze behind this weather front on friday, so a real change in the feel to the weather. with that fresher air comes more sunshine on friday. still a few showers here and there, particularly so for northern ireland and for scotland, but there could be 1—2 elsewhere across england and wales. dry and bright for many, though, especially towards the south. in the east, top temperatures up to about 2k celsius in the warmest spots, most of us typically 18—22 on friday. rolling into saturday, still a lot of dry weather, but you can see a few showers moving in from the west, potentially affecting northern ireland, scotland, western parts of england and wales. down towards the south—east, you're more likely to avoid any of those showers. higher pressure holding on here and temperatures again between about 16—22 celsius. but this big area of high pressure builds in and sticks with us as we head through sunday and into the first part of next week at least, weather fronts trying to move in from the atlantic but bumping into high pressure. so sunday, i think dry really across the board.

light winds, long spells of sunshine for all of us and it's going to feel that little bit warmer. so we'll start to see temperatures up at around about 25 for the warmest spots, but quite widely high teens and low 20s. outlook for next week — a lot of dry, settled weather. perhaps a little bit of rain at times later in the week, particularly in the north and north—west, but it's likely to be turning warmer, especially in the south and south—east. bye— bye.

welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm arunoday mukharji. let's get you the headlines. israel's prime minister set out his vision for a post—war gaza in an address to the us congress that was boycotted by many democratic lawmakers.

i , like, you are fired, get out of here! you are fired! —— kamala, you are fired! donald trump targets kamala harris in his first major rally sincejoe biden stepped away from the campaign. as the eu tighten economic pressure on the kremlin, we will bring you a special report as we travel with a ukrainian unit on the front line of the battle. that's outgoing fire. so along these front lines, the ukrainians have gained about 500 metres of territory from the russians. it's not a lot and it's been hard fought over. and prince harry says phone hacking legal battles was a key factor in the breakdown of relations between him and other members of the royalfamily.