CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday thanked the government of United States (US) President Donald Trump for opening the “floodgate to freedom” by capturing president Nicolas Maduro in January.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate made her comments 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 told a press conference, naming Trump, his administration and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The opposition leader has repeatedly lavished praise on the US leader for launching the risky operation to detain Maduro, and even gave him her Nobel medal — a prize he has long coveted for himself.

But for now, Trump appears to prefer interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy who took over from her deposed boss.

Machado, who slipped out of hiding in Venezuela last December to receive her Nobel, said she had returned home to “mobilise society.”

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.

“The date of the election is the date of liberation,” she added.

– ‘World as witness’ –

Machado however was more critical of a massive oil deal struck between Washington and Caracas earlier this year, which will see Venezuela hand over 20 per cent of its vast oil reserves to the United States.

“This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants,” she said.

The opposition leader’s return home poses a threat to the US-backed interim government, which has repeatedly promised to hold elections without setting a date.

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.

Machado’s party wants elections in 2027 and for her to be allowed to run, unlike the last presidential vote, when she was barred from being a candidate.

Jubilant crowds greeted her motorcade, which traveled through Venezuela upon her return.

Rodriguez voiced distaste for the fanfare.

“The show could have been avoided — the airports are right here,” she said on state television.