Maria Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after more than 10 months in exile

Maria Corina Machado told Venezuela on Sunday that she is home. "Estoy aqui. Con ustedes," she wrote on X. I am here. With you. She gave no detail on how she entered the country. Within hours, videos on social media showed her at the church of Santa Rosa in Barquisimeto, in the western state of Lara, where her party said she had gone to give thanks to the Divina Pastora, one of the most revered images of the Virgin Mary in Venezuela. Crowds pressed around her and chanted her name.

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia confirmed the return on X. He ran in Machado's place in the 2024 presidential election, and the opposition and several countries, the United States among them, recognized him as the winner of that vote. "Today is a very important day for Venezuelans," he wrote. "Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process." Gonzalez fled Venezuela in 2024 after threats of arrest, and he said he would join her soon.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday, "I hope she's safe. She's a very nice woman." 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." Rubio wrote, "The United States expects the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to continue to be respected. Likewise, we expect all political actors to support these talks."

The country she returns to has changed since she left it. American forces removed Nicolas Maduro from power in a military raid and flew him to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Washington then chose to work with his longtime deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, who became acting president. Rodriguez has met nearly every demand Washington made of her. She opened the oil sector to American companies, she restored diplomatic ties, and her government freed hundreds of political prisoners. The change has run unevenly. More than 300 people remain jailed on political grounds, according to the rights group Foro Penal, as of October 25. Power outages have grown longer and more frequent, and people have protested in the streets. The American backed talks on the country's future have run between Rodriguez's government and several opposition figures, and they have run without Machado and without Gonzalez.

Machado had tried to get home for months. Her aide Pedro Urruchurtu said she tried seven times in recent months, by air, by sea and over land, and every attempt was blocked. In June, after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, she set out to help with recovery work and said the government kept her out by closing its airspace. In September she was turned back three times in a single day, her senior adviser David Smolansky said at the time. A plane meant to carry her toward Curacao or Aruba was denied permission to land, and a charter company cancelled a sea crossing hours before departure. Administration officials have acknowledged advising her at times to stay away for her own safety. Rubio said in Athens this month that Washington had never asked any country to keep her out.

Her road to exile began in 2023, when she won the opposition presidential primary and Maduro's government barred her from the ballot anyway. She campaigned for Gonzalez, and after the July 2024 election the opposition published voting tallies that showed he had won decisively. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the victor, a result the United States and international observers rejected. Police briefly detained Machado after a protest in January 2025. She hid inside the country for 11 months, then escaped in secret in December and surfaced in Oslo, where she received the Nobel Peace Prize. She promised then that she would go back.

No election has been scheduled in Venezuela. Rodriguez has stayed on past the period the constitution allows an acting president to serve, and American officials have pressed for economic stabilization first. Machado wants a presidential vote by July 2027, and she has proposed July 24, the birthday of Simon Bolivar. On October 22, the third anniversary of the primary she won, thousands marched in Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo and other cities in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years. They carried her portrait and banners that read "Hasta el final," until the end, and they demanded an election date, freedom for political prisoners and her safe return. Three days later, she was home.