Machado says she is heading back to Venezuela as Trump moves to shape post-Maduro transition

Venezuela's main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, has vowed to return home quickly, praising US President Donald Trump for toppling her enemy, captured president Nicolas Maduro, and declaring her movement ready to win a free election.

Trump appears, however, to hope to work with interim President Delcy Rodriguez and other senior officials from Maduro's government for now, disappointing the opposition and contributing to the nervousness gripping Venezuela.

"I'm planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible," said 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% of the votes."

Machado said she had not spoken to Trump since October 10, when the Nobel award was announced. 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 late on Monday, her first since Maduro was captured by the US at the weekend, 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.

To the dismay of the large diaspora - one in five Venezuelans have left during an economic implosion under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez - Trump has given little indication of backing Machado.

The opposition, some international observers, and many US allies say the opposition was cheated of victory in the 2024 election, from which Machado was banned and an ally stood instead, but Trump has said she lacks support in Venezuela.

Rodriguez is a diehard Maduro ally who has denounced his "kidnapping" while also calling for cooperation and respectful relations with Washington.

"Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking," 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."

Machado, who has galvanized an often fractured and demoralized opposition in the last few years, said she would personally give Trump the Nobel Prize.

"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, Machado said.

Trump has, however, been told by the CIA that Rodriguez and other senior officials from Maduro's government are the best bet to maintain stability, sources said.

One official, Diosdado Cabello, has been on the streets patrolling with security forces. "Always loyal, never traitors. Doubt is betrayal!" they chanted in one of the various posts by the Venezuelan government overnight.

"There was no confrontation, the entire country remains completely calm," Vice Minister of Communications Simon Arrechider told reporters.

Machado's Vente Venezuela movement also demanded on Tuesday the release of all political prisoners, the number of whom a leading local rights group puts at 863.

"Those who unjustly hold the civilian and military political prisoners should free them immediately," the Vente Venezuela movement said.

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 due to mismanagement, underinvestment, and US sanctions, averaging 1.1 million bpd last year, a third of its output in the 1970s, and much less than that of producers such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

With the US imposing an embargo, Venezuela's main oil ports entered their fifth day on Tuesday without delivering crude for state-run PDVSA's main buyers in Asia.

Venezuela's bonds extended a rally on investor optimism over a post-Maduro future.

Maduro's vice president, Rodriguez, has been sworn in as interim leader - and Venezuela's first female head of state - as government officials waver between angry defiance and potential cooperation 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.

"The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: intervention has never brought democracy, never generated well-being, nor lasting stability," said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.