Machado says Trump opened 'floodgate to freedom' for Venezuela

CARACUS: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday (Oct 29) thanked the government of US President Donald Trump for opening the "floodgate to freedom" by capturing president Nicolas Maduro in January.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate spoke at a press conference in Caracas after returning to Venezuela from 10 months in exile.

"Thanks to their vision, their courage, and their action on January 3, the floodgate to freedom has been opened," Machado said, naming Trump, his administration and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

She was more critical of a massive oil deal struck between Washington and Caracas earlier this year, however, questioning its opacity.

"This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants," she said of the accord that will see Venezuela hand over 20 per cent of its vast oil reserves to the US.

Maduro was seized by US forces in January in a military raid on his compound in Venezuela. He and his wife were whisked to New York to face drug trafficking and other charges.

Machado slipped out of Venezuela last December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, after spending nearly a year in hiding. 

She returned to "mobilise society" ahead of future presidential elections, she said on Thursday.

Rubio "has set out a sequence of events aimed at moving toward a democratic transition that makes clear the holding of presidential elections in 2027," she said.

Venezuela's interim government has promised elections, but so far has not set a date.

Interim leader Delcy Rodriguez reiterated the promise, again without laying out a timeline, on Thursday.

"There will be elections... with the world as witness," Rodriguez said shortly before Machado's press conference.