US President Donald Trump has been ramping up pressure on Caracas, including the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday. Washington said the move was aimed at Maduro’s “regime,” but Caracas decried it as an act of “international piracy” and “blatant theft”.

In the interview on the “Face the Nation” talk show on CBS, Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, was asked if she endorses “more seizures and possibly even a blockade.”

“I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy, and we, the Venezuelan people, are very grateful to him and to his administration, because I believe he is a champion of freedom in this hemisphere,” Machado said.

According to Washington, the ship was carrying oil from Venezuela and Iran and had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 for alleged ties to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.

Machado was interviewed in Oslo, where she arrived early Thursday after making a spy-movie escape from her hiding place in Venezuela.

“We want every legal action through law enforcement approach, not only from the United States, also from other Caribbean, Latin American and European countries that further block the illegal activities of the regime,” Machado said. “Why? Because we need to increase the cost of staying in power by force.”

She added: “Once you arrive to that point in which the cost of staying in power is higher than the cost of leaving power, the regime will fall apart, and it’s the moment where we, you know, advance into a negotiated transition.”

In excerpts from the same interview released Friday, Machado was asked about the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela.

“I will welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go, that his time is over,” Machado said.

Leftist Maduro began a third six-year term after a presidential election last year, which the opposition claims to have won.