Venezuela’s main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to return home quickly, praising US president Donald Trump for toppling her enemy Nicolas Maduro and declaring her movement ready to win a free election.
Mr Trump appears, however, to hope for now to work with interim president Delcy Rodriguez and other senior officials from Mr Maduro’s government, disappointing the opposition and contributing to the nervousness gripping Venezuela.
“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” said Ms Machado, 58, an industrial engineer and mother of three who escaped from Venezuela in disguise in October to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to Trump.
“We believe that this transition should move forward,” she told Fox News in an interview. “We won an election (in 2024) by a landslide under fraudulent conditions. In free and fair elections, we will win over 90 per cent of the votes.”
Ms Machado said she had not spoken to Mr Trump since October 10, when the Nobel award was announced.
[ Why Trump has refused to back Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’Opens in new window ]
He has said the United States needs to help address Venezuela’s problems before any new elections, calling a 30-day timeline for a vote unrealistic.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told NBC.
In the interview, her first since Mr Maduro was captured by the US at the weekend, Ms Machado did not give her location or any more details on plans to repatriate to Venezuela, where she is wanted for arrest and socialist party loyalists remain in power.
Explainer
Who is Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s ousted president?
Maduro was born on November 23rd, 1962, son of a trade union leader. He worked as a bus driver during the time army officer Hugo Chavez led a failed coup attempt in 1992.
He campaigned for Chavez’s release from prison and became a supporter of his leftist agenda. He won a seat in the legislature following Chavez’s 1998 election.
Chavez named him as his hand-picked successor. Maduro was narrowly elected president in 2013 following Chavez’s death.
Maduro’s administration oversaw a spectacular economic collapse. His rule became known for allegedly rigged elections, food shortages and rights abuses. Millions of Venezuelans emigrated.
He was sworn in for a third term in January 2025 following a 2024 election that was widely condemned by observers and the opposition as fraudulent.
His government’s repressive measures were highlighted by the award of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Nicolás Maduro at a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: Adriana Loureiro Fernandez/The New York Times
Adriana Loureiro Fernandez
To the dismay of the large diaspora – one in five Venezuelans have left during an economic implosion under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez – Mr Trump has given little indication of backing Ms Machado.
The opposition, some international observers and many US allies, say the opposition was cheated of victory in the 2024 election, from which Ms Machado was banned and an ally stood instead, but Mr Trump has said she lacks support in Venezuela.
Ms Rodriguez is a diehard Maduro ally who has denounced his “kidnapping” while also calling for co-operation and respectful relations with Washington.
“Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking,” Ms Machado said. “She’s a main ally and liaison of Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual who could be trusted by international investors and she’s really rejected by the Venezuelan people.”
Ms Machado, who has galvanised an often fractured and demoralised opposition in the last few years, said she would give Mr Trump the Nobel Prize personally.
“He has proven to the world what he means. January 3rd will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny,” she said of Saturday’s raid on Venezuela.
She thanked him for “his courageous vision, the historical actions he has taken against this narco-terrorist regime”, and said: “It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”
With the world’s largest oil reserves and the US as its main ally, Venezuela would become the energy hub of the Americas, restore rule of law, open markets, bring exiles home and provide security to foreign investment, Ms Machado said.
Trump has, however, been told by the CIA that Ms Rodriguez and other senior officials from Mr Maduro’s government are the best bet to maintain stability, sources said.
Armed supporters of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro stand guard in Caracas. Photograph: Pedro Mattey/AFP via Getty Images
The authorities have ordered the arrest of anyone who collaborated with the seizure of Mr Maduro and 14 media workers were briefly detained covering events in Caracas on Monday.
Footage showed shots being fired on Monday night into the sky in Caracas, which a Venezuelan official said came from police to deter unauthorised drones.
“There was no confrontation, the entire country remains completely calm,” vice minister of communications Simon Arrechider told reporters.
With nearly 900 political prisoners still behind bars according to a leading local rights group, Machado’s Vente Venezuela movement demanded on Monday that they be released immediately as a first step towards restoring democracy.
Mr Maduro, 63, pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges. He said he was a “decent man” and still president of Venezuela while standing in a Manhattan court shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige prison garb.
He is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network with international cartels. He has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on oil.
Venezuela has the largest reserves – about 303 billion barrels, mostly hard-to-extract heavy oil. But the sector has long been in decline from mismanagement, underinvestment and US sanctions, averaging 1.1 million bpd output last year, a third of its output in the 1970s and much less than producers such as the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Maduro’s vice-president, Rodriguez, has been sworn in as interim leader – and Venezuela’s first woman head of state – as government officials waver between angry defiance and potential co-operation with Trump. He has threatened another military strike if they displease him.
Trump’s actions, the biggest US intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, have brought condemnation from Russia, China and Venezuela’s leftist allies.
Legal experts have questioned its validity and many allies have urged adherence to international laws and dialogue.
“It sends a signal that the powerful can do whatever they like,” the UN human rights office said on Tuesday in the latest expression of international concern.
Mr Trump has said the US is now in charge of Venezuela and will help revive its oil industry with the help of private companies. He has floated the idea of military intervention in Colombia and Mexico also.
“The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: intervention has never brought democracy, never generated wellbeing, nor lasting stability,” said Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum. – Reuters