Venezuela opposition leader María Machado calls for elections upon return
Machado, who was in exile for nearly a year, said the transition in Venezuela's government would be "irreversible, organised, pacific".
During a news conference in Caracas on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said the country's move toward democracy was "irreversible".
She also thanked the Trump administration for opening the "floodgate to freedom" by capturing her opponent, former President Nicolás Maduro.
The same day, Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said elections would be held and that her government should oversee a "transition of this magnitude" - which Machado dismissed as illogical. Rodríguez, who was Maduro's vice-president, did not set a date for voting.
The Trump administration then backed Rodríguez as leader. She was sworn in as interim president and later signed an oil deal that granted favourable terms to the US.