Venezuelan government officials floated a plan in which President Nicolás Maduro would eventually leave office, a bid aimed at easing mounting U.S. pressure on the government in Caracas.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize last week, has called for greater US support to stop what she described as a “war” on her country by President Nicolás Maduro.

Machado, whom the Nobel Committee commended for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” has praised U.S. President Donald Trump for supporting Venezuela’s pro-democracy movement.

Venezuela’s autocrat had proposed allocating his country’s oil wealth and other natural resources to the U.S. and ending deals with American adversaries to appease President Trump.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he is preparing to declare a state of emergency to protect his country in the event of an attack by the US military, amid rising tensions over the deployment of American warships to the Caribbean.