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Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has returned home after more than 10 months in exile, as the United States works with the country’s acting government on a political transition that has so far excluded her, CNN reported.
“I am here. With you,” Machado wrote on “X” on Sunday morning. Other opposition members later confirmed her arrival but gave no further details.
Machado left Venezuela in December to travel to Norway and accept the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to her for promoting democratic rights in her country.
A month after her departure, the United States toppled her rival, President Nicolás Maduro, and began working with the acting Venezuelan government to guide the country towards a democratic transition and political reconciliation. The process has involved several prominent opposition figures but excluded Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
Machado had repeatedly vowed to return and suggested she would run for president again if an election were held. In late August, Omar González, a key member of her inner circle, returned to Venezuela after nearly three years in exile, describing his return as a “prelude” to Machado’s.
Her advisers said Machado had tried to re-enter Venezuela seven times in recent months without success. She first attempted to return in late June to help with reconstruction after two powerful earthquakes devastated the country, but said the government had thwarted her return by closing the airspace.
She tried again in late September, while acting President Delcy Rodríguez was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Machado was denied entry three times in one day.
During her time away, Machado travelled internationally to build support among allies, including US President Donald Trump, to whom she gave her Nobel Prize. Although the Trump administration had previously supported Machado, it has largely sidelined her in Venezuela’s ongoing political transition.
After Maduro was ousted in January, Trump called Machado a “very nice woman” but said she “does not have the support or the respect within the country” to lead.
Instead, the United States has worked with Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, on political and economic reforms. Rodríguez has met almost every demand from the Trump administration, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and measures to make it easier for US companies to invest in Venezuela.
In late August, Trump said the United States had reached an agreement to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves. Some consider the move beneficial to both the US oil industry and the Venezuelan economy. In a video statement, Machado questioned why the oil agreement announced by Trump was being signed by the Venezuelan government, which she called an “illegitimate regime.”
The government held on to power in 2024 after state-controlled electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner of the last presidential election, despite experts concluding that the result was statistically improbable.
At the UN General Assembly, Rodríguez pledged that Venezuela would hold new elections and transition to a full democracy, which the United States says is its main goal. The acting government has not announced when a vote will take place.
Trump has repeatedly said Venezuela is not yet ready for elections, while insisting that significant progress has been made.
