Mario Diaz-Balart

A Florida Republican has erupted in fury at a local news reporter who asked about the future of Venezuela in the wake of dictator Nicolás Maduro's capture.

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart hit back against the accusation that members of his party are not 'willing to support' popular Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, despite US President Donald Trump's comments to the contrary.

He ripped into the reporter for 'putting words in my mouth' while adding that he thinks Machado will be the country's 'next democratically-elected president'.

This marks a departure from the party line, as Trump appears to have thoroughly dismissed the idea of working with Machado by claiming Saturday that she 'doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country' to lead it.

Assuming that Rep Díaz-Balart shared the same perspective, a local reporter asked him during a Miami press conference the same day why 'you are not willing to support' Machado.

'Woah woah woah woah woah woah. Wait wait wait. Hold on. First, you're talking to us? When have we ever not supported her?' Díaz-Balart hit back.

'These are serious issues,' he added, while wagging his finger at the journalist.

'Do not put words in my mouth! I will not tolerate putting words in my mouth or my colleagues mouths.

'We have been consistent from day one, and I am convinced there's going to be a transition, we've already talked about that.

'And I'm convinced that when there are elections - whether they're new elections, or whether there's a decision to take the old elections - that the next democratically-elected president of Venezuela is going to be Maria Corina Machado.'

It is unclear which outlet the local journalist worked for. The Daily Mail has reached out to Díaz-Balart's office for clarification.

Díaz-Balart represents Florida's 26th congressional district, which covers a large swathe of Miami - the US city with the highest population of Venezuelan immigrants.

A longtime Republican elected to Congress in 2002, he was born in Florida to Cuban parents, and he has also said that Maduro's arrest foreshadows the downfall of the Cuban and Nicaraguan regimes too.

'I was convinced that these terrorist regimes would have not survived another four years of Donald Trump,' he told Florida Politics on Sunday. 'Let me say it now in a different way - I am convinced that the two remaining ones will not survive.'

Díaz-Balart's family ties to the Cuban regime run deep, with his aunt being the first wife of Communist former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

He spoke at the explosive press conference on Saturday alongside Florida Senator Ashley Moody, and fellow Reps Carlos A. Giménez and María Elvira Salazar.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed Machado, who beat him to the Nobel Peace Prize last year, 'doesn't have the support' within her country to successfully lead it following Maduro's capture.

Vente Venezuela Party leader Machado is widely seen as Maduro's most credible opponent, but Trump told reporters he has not been in contact with her.

'She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country,' he said.

It comes despite Machado voicing support for US actions to fight alleged drug trafficking from Venezuela - and after she dedicated her Noble Prize win to Trump and the people in her country.

Machado, who is hugely popular among Venezuelan voters, also referred to Trump's capture of Maduro as 'the hour of freedom' for her people in an X post shared shortly after the shock abduction.

Her supporters, including Venezuelan businessman and former board member of the state oil company PDVSA, Pedro Burelli, have hit back at Trump's comments.

Machado, 'is the most respected politician in the country,' Burelli wrote on X. 'Venezuela is broke and needy, but it is not about to surrender to absurd whims.'

The day after capturing Maduro, Trump said the dictator's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez would be the new Venezuelan leader.

He said she had been 'sworn in' as president and was 'willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again'.

But Rodriguez refused to comply, saying Maduro remained the country's only president. Trump responded by saying the US would now run Venezuela.