South America · 23 September, 2026 · 3 min read
Delcy Rodríguez Blocks María Corina Machado From Returning to Venezuela Three Times
Machado made three failed attempts to return to Venezuela from Panama. Authorities blocked her return, leaving her stranded in Panama.
28 outlets told this the same way.
8 of 9 outlets skipped it: venezuelan government deems Machado a fugitive.
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Machado Blocked Again
María Corina Machado tried to return to Venezuela from Panama three times in less than 24 hours, but her team said the attempts failed as Delcy Rodríguez met Donald Trump in New York.
Pedro Urruchurtu told reporters that “They are preventing María Corina from returning to Venezuela. In the last few hours there have been three attempts, by sea and air, from Panama, without success,” and he added, “They won't let her return to her own country.”
In less than 24 hours the sea departure from Panama and the attempts to fly to Aruba and Curaçao were sequentially closed, and the sequence was described as Machado’s fifth, sixth, and seventh attempts since she left clandestinely nine months earlier.
A small recreational vessel planned to cross the Panama Canal on September 21 was canceled after a major engine failure involving two cylinders, and Machado’s team then began searching for a plane to approach Venezuela via Caribbean islands.
BBC said Machado’s latest attempts were blocked while Rodríguez was in New York, and it framed the effort as three failed bids by sea and air from Panama during the same period.
Passports, Flights, and Claims
Pedro Urruchurtu said Machado was blocked from returning, and he wrote that “They are preventing María Corina from returning to Venezuela.”
Panama issued a special diplomatic passport for humanitarian reasons that “does not imply that she is granted Panamanian citizenship,” and the document records that Machado was born in Venezuela while providing diplomatic documentation to travel.
Copies of a flight manifest began circulating with an assertion that Machado had obtained Panamanian nationality, and it was “not what the document ABC had in front of it stated.”
Juan Pablo Guanipa criticized the block, saying, “Prohibiting María Corina Machado from entering is unacceptable. No power or authority, internal or foreign, has the legitimacy to prohibit a Venezuelan citizen from entering his country.”
BBC said Machado’s international relations adviser confirmed the latest attempts had failed, and it described the effort as three attempts by sea and air from Panama that were turned away each time.
Rodríguez Meets Trump
Delcy Rodríguez met Donald Trump in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly, and Latin America Reports said the meeting came as Machado’s return attempts were reported as blocked over the previous two days. Latin America Reports quoted Rodríguez saying, “We discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, and security,” and it said the meeting included participation by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller. DW said the return to Venezuela of the opposition leader was blocked again on Tuesday (09/22/2026), and it cited a source from Vente Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning team saying, “Yes, he tried to return but it was frustrated.”
Le Figaro reported that Machado’s team said she was prevented from returning, and it described her as clandestinely leaving Venezuela in December 2025 to receive her prize in Oslo and settling in Panama after a short stay in the United States. El País said a flight manifest listed Machado on an airplane supposed to depart from Panama City to the island of Curaçao with a Panamanian passport, and it said her Venezuelan passport was not valid while her team reported she was “prisoner in Panama.”