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

In brief

• María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after nearly a year in exile.
• Large crowds greeted her in Lara state and along the road to Caracas.
• She has called for elections by July 2027 and may run for president.
• The transition led by interim president Delcy Rodríguez remains contested.

Return to a changed country

Machado arrived in Venezuela on Sunday after more than ten months abroad. She left the country secretly in December last year to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo (Crowds welcome Venezuela's María Machado after months in exile – BBC News). Her first post on X after landing was brief: she wrote that she was there, with her supporters.

Crowds along the route

Supporters lined highways, toll plazas and city streets in the western state of Lara and along the route toward the capital, waving national flags (Venezuela: Opposition leader Machado returns from exile, received by thousands of supporters in Caracas – DW). In Guacara, she attended a Mass and sang the national anthem in a packed plaza (Opposition leader María Machado returns from exile to a Venezuela reshaped by Trump – BBC News). Huge crowds also gathered along her convoy through Caracas.

Why the return was delayed

Machado had tried to come back several times without success. Venezuelan authorities blocked those attempts, and the Trump administration said the timing was not right (María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela after months in exile – New York Times). This time Washington did not intervene.

Context of the transition

US forces seized Maduro in January, and Washington then backed his deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president. Machado has called for new elections by July 2027 and has said she is interested in running for president. Donald Trump said he hoped she would be safe and described her as a very pleasant woman, while noting that she had given him her Nobel medal (Trump, sobre el regreso de Maria Corina Machado a Venezuela: “Espero que esté a salvo, es una mujer muy agradable” – EL PAÍS).

Open questions

Commentators in Spain note that the transition is run through a negotiating table that critics say does not reflect popular sentiment and has moved slowly (María Corina Machado regresa a casa, pero su misión no ha terminado – EL PAÍS). Edmundo González Urrutia, who is in exile in Spain, has said he will also return to Venezuela soon (María Corina Machado ya volvió a Venezuela. ¿Y ahora qué? – EL PAÍS).