Before Maduro arrest, Nobel Prize winner said Venezuela has a $1.7 trillion opportunity to privatize over 500 companies and undo socialist ‘disaster’

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.

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