María Corina Machado is back in Venezuela. The opposition leader announced her return on X on Sunday, more than 10 months after she fled the country by speedboat at night to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the BBC reported.
Footage shared on social media placed Machado, 59, in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara state and roughly 220 miles west of Caracas, where supporters crowded around her at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess, The Guardian reported. Her ally Pedro Urruchurtu posted video of hundreds of people outside the shrine chanting for freedom. She then set off east toward the capital in a convoy through Yaracuy state, waving to roadside crowds through a car sunroof.
It was not immediately clear how she got back in. Her close ally Edmundo González, the opposition's 2024 presidential candidate who remains in exile, confirmed her arrival and said he would soon follow.
A homecoming shaped by Washington
Machado returns to a country transformed since she left. In January, a few weeks after her departure, U.S. forces seized President Nicolás Maduro, who is now jailed in New York on drugs, weapons and torture charges and has pleaded not guilty. Rather than turn to Machado, whose movement is widely believed to have defeated Maduro in 2024, the Trump administration backed his vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president. Rodríguez later signed an oil deal on terms very favorable to the United States, and The Guardian describes Venezuela as widely seen today as a U.S. protectorate.
Machado and Rodríguez are bitter political rivals, and The Guardian reported that the administration had opposed Machado's return, believing it would complicate its relationship with Rodríguez. An adviser to Machado said in September that she had been turned back on seven attempts in the preceding weeks, according to the BBC, which noted reports that the U.S. was involved in the delays, something Washington has denied.
Trump, asked about her return on Sunday, said he knew nothing about it but praised her. "She gave me her Nobel prize, so how can I say anything else?" he told reporters. Machado handed him her prize medal during a White House visit in January; the Nobel committee has said the award cannot be transferred.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took a different line, crediting U.S.-supported reconciliation talks for making her safe return possible and saying those talks had freed hundreds of political prisoners.
What comes next
Government figures had long hinted Machado would be arrested if she came home, but there was no sign Sunday of security forces interfering with her, The Guardian reported. Her spokesman, David Smolansky, called the return a major step toward a democratic transition and thanked Trump, Rubio and the U.S. government.
The harder question is whether that transition comes. Machado has called for new presidential elections by July 2027 and has said she would run again if a vote were held. The Guardian reported it is unclear whether the Trump administration backs that timeline, given its lucrative partnership with Rodríguez. For Venezuelans who voted against Maduro in 2024, the gap between a celebrated homecoming and an actual election is where the next fight lies.
Reporting sources: World news | The Guardian, “Exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela” · BBC News, “Venezuelan opposition leader María Machado returns after months in exile”.