Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has commended US President Donald Trump for the operation against former President Nicolás Maduro in January, which she said unleashed a “floodgate to freedom” and called for 2027 Presidential elections.
During a news conference in Caracas on Thursday, Machado expressed gratitude to Trump, his team and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for ousting Maduro.
“Because of their vision, their valour and because they took action on the 3rd of January, the floodgate to freedom is now open,” she said.
The apology came when she made her first public appearance following her return to Venezuela on Sunday, after ten months of exile. Machado said she went back to “mobilise society” and guarantee the transition to democracy.
‘Rubio lay out a path to democratic change, which included presidential elections next year,’ she said.
Machado, however, also criticised an oil deal between Washington and Caracas saying it was not transparent.
“This agreement is not the level of transparency that Venezuelan society wants,” she said.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez likewise indicated elections in the future but gave no specific date.
Maduro was arrested by US troops in a Jan. 3 military raid and transported to New York to be tried on drug trafficking charges, he has denied.
