Machado Returns to Venezuela After 10 Months in Exile
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after nearly a year in exile, following U.S. capture of Maduro.
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Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has returned to the country after nearly a year in exile. Machado, who was prohibited from leaving Venezuela due to travel bans imposed by the former Maduro dictatorship, was forced to secretly flee in December 2025 after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway — just one month before U.S. forces captured former socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Following her capture, Machado was effectively barred from returning to Venezuela and considered a fugitive by the government. Her return was repeatedly delayed by flight cancellations and entry restrictions, driven in part by hesitation from the Trump administration and interference from interim authorities in Caracas.
On Sunday, her supporters lined highways, toll plazas and city streets, waving Venezuelan flags and chanting slogans like “freedom” as Machado traveled in a convoy of cars and motorcycles toward the capital, Caracas, after 10 months in exile.
The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela is 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. The United States…
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the safe return of Machado in an X post, stating that her return was a “direct result” of the reconciliation talks between Washington and Caracas. “The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela is 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 on Sunday. “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 which represent the best chance Venezuela has had in thirty years to peacefully achieve not just a free and fair election but an enduring democracy.”
Machado’s senior adviser, David Smoalnsky, added that her return is “a major step toward a democratic transition and free, fair and verifiable presidential elections in the near future.” “Machado returns to stand with Venezuelans in their pursuit of freedom, democracy, and justice, and to help advance a peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable transition leading to free, fair, and verifiable presidential elections, with guarantees for all,” he said, thanking President Donald Trump and his administration for “their continued leadership and support.”
Since Maduro’s abduction, Venezuela has been led by acting President Delcy Rodríguez — a longtime ally who received the Trump administration’s backing to succeed him. However, Rodríguez has now surpassed her constitutionally allowed term limit, and no election has been scheduled.
Source: OANN
