María Corina Machado Returns to Venezuela After Nearly a Year in Exile

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado is back in her home country following a series of failed attempts to return and nearly a year in exile.

Machado announced her return via a post on social media site X, in which she wrote "I am here. With you".

Machado had covertly left Venezuela in December 2025 to receive her Nobel Peace Prize. Just weeks later, US forces seized the country's longtime leader Nicolás Maduro and flew him to New York to face criminal charges.

Machado has heaped praise on US President Donald Trump for launching the risky operation, though Washington has allowed Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, to rule as interim president.

According to her party, Machado attempted to return seven times in the past three months, from the United States, Panama and Curaçao. They say she was repeatedly blocked by Venezuelan authorities.

Many believed Washington played a role in blocking Machado's return, given Trump's repeated expressions of satisfaction with Rodríguez.

That claim has been denied by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Machado setting the stage for her return

Machado has spent the last few months trying to regain her place on Venezuela's political stage while talks on the country's future moved forward without her being able to take part directly from within.

This past week, she called on Venezuelans to take to the streets and demanded that a date be set for the presidential elections, one of her main demands of Delcy Rodríguez's government.

She had accused Rodríguez's government of being afraid of her return. Now, with the opposition leader back in Venezuela, the question is no longer when she will manage to return, but what role she will be able to play in a political landscape shaped by negotiations between Chavismo, different sectors of the opposition and the United States.

Rodríguez did not immediately react to the news of Machado's return.