Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday after nearly a year in exile. Her team confirmed her return, in a move likely to increase pressure on interim president Delcy Rodríguez as the country’s political future remains uncertain.“I am here. With you,” Machado wrote in Spanish on X, without disclosing how she had re-entered the country or providing details of her whereabouts.Her close ally, exiled opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, also confirmed her return in a social media post. “Venezuela! I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil,” he wrote, adding that he would return soon.Machado was later seen at a church in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara state, about 220 miles west of Caracas. Footage and photographs published by news organisations showed supporters greeting and embracing her during a religious ceremony at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess.
Machado’s exile
Machado left Venezuela covertly in December 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. Since then, she has made several attempts to return, but Venezuelan authorities blocked her entry, according to her party and her advisers. Her return comes amid continuing uncertainty over the country’s political transition following the removal of former president Nicolás Maduro by US forces in January.Machado’s opposition movement is widely believed to have won the 2024 presidential election, although Maduro was declared the winner and refused to hand over power. González, who stood in the election after Machado was barred from running, has been living in exile.Following Maduro’s ouster, Rodríguez, his former vice-president, assumed the role of interim president with the backing of US president Donald Trump’s administration. Washington has prioritised economic stabilisation and access to Venezuela’s oil, while Machado and her allies have pressed for a date for fresh presidential elections.The Guardian reported that the Trump administration had opposed Machado’s return, fearing it could complicate its relationship with Rodríguez. However, Trump told reporters on Sunday that he did not know about Machado’s return, adding that he hoped she was safe. “She’s a very nice woman,” he said, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize medal Machado had given him.US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the circumstances that enabled Machado’s return were the result of US support for reconciliation talks. In a post on X, Rubio said Washington expected the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to be respected and urged political actors to support negotiations aimed at achieving free and fair elections.Machado’s homecoming comes as her party continues to demand an electoral timetable. Rodríguez’s interim administration has held rounds of negotiations with a section of the opposition and agreed to judicial reforms, but no date for a presidential election has been announced.Machado has repeatedly praised Trump for the operation that removed Maduro and presented him with her Nobel medal during a meeting in January. Her return now puts renewed focus on whether Venezuela’s political transition will lead to competitive elections and what role the opposition will play in shaping the country’s future.
