CARACAS: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday backed a US proposal to declare her country’s presidency vacant and hold elections next year.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate made a dramatic return from exile late last month, almost one year after the US seized president Nicolas Maduro.

Since then, Maduro’s former vice president Delcy Rodriguez has served as interim leader under Washington’s watchful eye.

Calls have been growing for democratic elections to take place in the South American nation, which Machado backs.

In a statement addressed to the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid, she voiced support for a US State Department plan to renew Venezuela’s highest court before the end of 2026 and create a new National Electoral Council immediately afterwards.

The plan then requires Rodriguez to declare the presidency vacant and call elections within six months of doing so.

“In light of the prolonged de facto situation our country is going through, we endorse this plan as a reasonable way to move toward the full restoration of constitutional order in Venezuela,” Machado said.

Rodriguez has repeatedly said elections will take place, without specifying a date.