South Americaupdated 38m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 11 December 2025María Corina Machado Returns To Venezuela After Nearly 10 Months In Exile
27 Western Mainstream4 Other1 Asian1 West AsianPhoto: Kevin Payravi / WikiPortraits, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
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Machado returns to Venezuela after nearly ten months in exile. She reappears publicly in Lara state, posting 'I am here, with you'.
33 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on U.S. State Department Officials Back Bolsonaro Clan in Brazil Election, Push Sanctions →
Machado returns to Lara
María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday after almost ten months outside the country, reappearing publicly at the sanctuary of the Divina Pastora in Barquisimeto, Lara state.
“‘I am here. With you,’ Machado wrote on X on Sunday.”
María Corina Machado posted on X, “I am here. With you,” and Edmundo González Urrutia confirmed her return minutes later by writing, “I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil.”
In January, a month after Machado left Venezuela to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the US seized her opponent, President Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration backed Delcy Rodríguez as leader, and Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president and later signed an oil deal with the US.
ABC said Machado’s return marked “a milestone in the political transition opened after Nicolás Maduro’s capture by the United States on January 3.”
Trump, Rubio, and advisers
Donald Trump told reporters, “I hope she is safe,” after he said he was not aware of Machado’s return when asked. David Smolansky, a senior adviser to Machado, said the return is “a major step toward a democratic transition and free, fair, and verifiable presidential elections in the near future.” An advisor to Machado said in September that over the previous few weeks Machado had attempted seven times to return to Venezuela, but was denied each time.
It was unclear what Machado plans to do next now that she is back, while she has previously said she would run for president again if an election were held. ABC reported that the White House maintained negotiations with Delcy Rodríguez’s regime about the reorganization of Venezuelan institutions, the renewal of the Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council, and the conditions for future elections.
What comes next for elections
Machado’s return puts her back in a political process the BBC described as fraught, where the BBC reported that the electoral authority declared Maduro the winner without making detailed voting tallies public. The opposition argued González won the election, not Maduro, and the opposition uploaded copies of the voting tallies as evidence. Machado’s spokesperson called her return “a major step toward a democratic transition and free, fair, and verifiable presidential elections in the near future,” framing the homecoming as tied to future voting.
ABC reported that the United States “oversees much of the negotiations over Venezuela’s political and economic future,” and that Washington was aware of the plans that prevented the dictatorship, now led by Delcy Rodriguez, from blocking her entry again as it did in June. Euronews reported that Machado called on Venezuelans to take to the streets and demanded that a date be set for the presidential elections, and Euronews said Rodríguez did not immediately react to the news of Machado’s return.