Machado of Venezuela: ""People talk about invasion in Venezuela, the threat of an invasion in Venezuela. And I answer, Venezuela was has been already invaded," she said.

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Nobel winner María Corina Machado says U.S. 'support' helped her escape Venezuela 

"People talk about invasion in Venezuela, the threat of an invasion in Venezuela. And I answer, Venezuela was has been already invaded," she said.

"We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents, we have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas operating freely in accordance with the regime," she said. "We have the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels that have taken over 60% of our populations, and not only involving drug trafficking, but in human trafficking, in networks of prostitution."

She said these networks had "turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas," with trafficking of drugs, arms and humans, alongside the oil black market, funding the regime's "repression system".