Machado returned to Venezuela after a decade‑long exile, arriving in Caracas on Thursday to hold a press conference that praised the U.S. operation that seized Maduro on January 3.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate said the action opened a 'floodgate to freedom' and that the United States, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had laid out a sequence of events aimed at a democratic transition with elections scheduled for 2027.
She also slammed a recent oil deal that would transfer 20% of Venezuela's reserves to the United States, arguing it lacked the transparency demanded by Venezuelan society.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, whom the U.S. has backed, reiterated the promise of elections without a set date, saying on state television, 'There will be elections... with the world as witness.'
The return of Machado, who was barred from running in the 2024 vote, was met with jubilant crowds at her motorcade, a spectacle that Rodriguez called avoidable.
The next step will see the interim government set a concrete timetable for the 2027 elections, a demand that has become a flashpoint in the country's political crisis.