Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Monday she plans to return home “as soon as possible,” and slammed the interim president in Caracas.

In her first public comments since a social media post over the weekend, when the US military forcibly removed and kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro, the Nobel Peace Prize winner vowed to return to her country.

She had left Venezuela last month to travel to Norway to accept the award, and hasn’t returned since.

“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” Machado told broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News, speaking from an undisclosed location.

Machado openly rejected the country’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, saying she “is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking”.

Rodriguez, who has signalled her willingness to cooperate with Washington, was Venezuela’s vice president under Maduro.

Machado said Rodriguez is “rejected” by the Venezuelan people, and voters were on the opposition’s side.

“In free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 per cent of the votes, I have no doubt about it,” Machado said.

Machado also vowed to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas” and “dismantle all these criminal structures” that have harmed her countrymen, promising to “bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home”.

Machado says she hasn’t spoken to Trump since Oct

Machado also said on Monday she hasn’t spoken to US President Donald Trump since October 2025.

“Actually, I spoke with President Trump on October 10, the same day the (Noble Peace) Prize was announced, (but) not since then,” Machado said on the Fox News programme.

She was awarded the prize for her fight against what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called a dictatorship.

She also welcomed the US actions as “a huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity”.

Trump on Saturday had dismissed the idea of working with Machado, saying “she doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

CIA concludes regime loyalists best suited to lead Venezuela: sources

A classified CIA assessment presented to Trump has concluded senior Maduro loyalists, including vice president Rodriguez, were best positioned to maintain stability if the Venezuelan leader lost power, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed an exclusive report by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump was briefed on the report, and it was shared with a small group of his senior national security team, the sources said.

The assessment was one reason why Trump decided to back Maduro’s vice president, Rodriguez, instead of opposition leader Machado, the sources said.

The White House declined to confirm the report.

“President Trump is routinely briefed on domestic political dynamics all over the world. The president and his national security team are making realistic decisions to finally ensure Venezuela aligns with the interests of the United States, and becomes a better country for the Venezuelan people,“ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to a query.