Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after nearly a year outside the country, she said on social media on Sunday, October 25.
“I’m here. With you all,” the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Machado wrote early on Sunday. In Spanish, her message read: “Estoy aquí. Con ustedes.”
Her press team shared images of her in central-western Lara state, at the Plaza del Pueblo de Santa Rosa, where she appeared at a church in Barquisimeto. Crowds pressed around her, chanting her name, according to reports from the scene. She gave no details about how she entered the country.
A return long delayed
Machado was barred by Nicolás Maduro’s government from leaving Venezuela, but she secretly left in late 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, after spending more than a year living mostly in hiding, Reuters reported.
Her desire to return had caused friction in Washington, Reuters reported in June, with U.S. officials asking her to delay her trip. She had sought to cultivate the Trump administration as an ally since before it removed Maduro from power in January.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy, and has hailed deals on oil production and other business ventures by U.S. companies in Venezuela. Trump said in September that it was too soon to consider democratic elections in Venezuela.
What Washington said
Speaking at the White House on Sunday, Trump said he did not know anything about Machado’s return and suggested that the United States would continue to back Rodríguez.
“She’s a very nice woman,” he said, referring to Machado. “But we’re doing really well in Venezuela.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that her safe return was “the direct result of the U.S. supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile.”
“The United States expects the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to continue to be respected,” Rubio wrote. “Likewise, we expect all political actors to support these talks.”
Neither the White House nor the Venezuelan communications ministry immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on Machado’s return.
What comes next
Machado plans to meet victims of the deadly earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June, as well as the families of political prisoners, the international community and various leaders from the democratic movement in Venezuela, David Smolansky, her top foreign affairs adviser, told Reuters.
“She will work proactively for a date for free and fair elections,” he added.
A faction of the opposition and the interim government held their latest session of talks this month, which aim to remake the top court and electoral council, among other goals, ahead of eventual elections. Those talks do not include Machado’s political movement.
Edmundo González, a former presidential candidate for Machado’s movement who has been living in Spain, confirmed her return in his own post and said he would soon join her. Machado has said an election should take place by July 2027; no election has yet been scheduled.
This is a developing story.
Sources: Reuters; USA Today
