Nobel Laureate María Corina Machado Returns to Venezuela After Nearly a Year in Exile
'I am here. With you,' the opposition leader wrote on X as her team called the return a step toward free elections. No vote has been scheduled under acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after nearly a year abroad, her team confirmed to CBS News on Sunday. "I am here. With you," she wrote in Spanish on X.
Machado did not say where she is staying or how she got back into the country. The Associated Press reported that she was seen at a church in Lara state, west of Caracas, where dozens of supporters shook her hand and hugged her while filming on their phones. Onlookers shouted "María! María!" and "Welcome to Venezuela!" One man yelled, "Long live freedom, damn it!" A woman called her return "a miracle."
Her senior adviser, David Smolansky, called the return "a major step toward a democratic transition and free, fair, and verifiable presidential elections in the near future," and thanked President Trump and the U.S. government for "their continued leadership and support." Edmundo González, a former presidential candidate for her movement who lives in Spain, confirmed the return on social media and said he would join her "very soon."
Machado left Venezuela covertly in December, with the help of a private U.S. rescue team, to accept the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. It was her first public appearance in 11 months. About a month later, the U.S. military deposed then-President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro's government had barred her from leaving the country, and the Venezuelan government still considers her a fugitive and accuses her of calling for military intervention.
Her team says she tried several times to come home, including after the double earthquakes on June 24. Smolansky said she was denied entry three times in 24 hours in September and had tried to enter by both air and sea.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the conditions that allowed her return were "the direct result of the U.S. support reconciliation talks." He said the United States expects freedoms for "all sectors of Venezuelan politics" to be respected, and called the talks the "best chance Venezuela has had in thirty years" to reach a free and fair election and lasting democracy.
Asked about it by reporters Sunday, Trump said he knew nothing about the return. He described Machado as "a very nice woman," said he hoped she was safe, and noted that she had given him her Nobel Prize.
Since Maduro's removal, Venezuela has been run by acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally who received the Trump administration's blessing to succeed him. Rodríguez has stayed in office beyond the period she was authorized to serve, and no presidential election has been scheduled. Machado and her allies are demanding a date. U.S. officials have emphasized economic stabilization first. Supporters rallied in Caracas on Oct. 22 to press for an election date, and Machado's return puts the most prominent opposition figure back on Venezuelan soil as that fight continues.
