Venezuela’s Machado Back Home After Nearly a Year Away, With No Election Date Set

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to her country after nearly a year abroad, Fox News, Al Jazeera and The Independent reported. She announced her arrival on social media on Sunday, writing, “I’m here. With you all.”

Her return comes as Venezuela is run by acting President Delcy Rodríguez with the backing of the Trump administration, and no presidential election has been scheduled.

How she got back: a timeline

• January 2025: Machado was briefly detained after an opposition protest and then largely disappeared from public view, according to Fox News and Al Jazeera.
• December: After secretly leaving Venezuela, she reappeared in Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for her peaceful opposition to Nicolás Maduro’s government.
• January 2026: U.S. forces removed Maduro from power. Rodríguez, his former vice president, took over as acting president with President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
• June: Reuters reported that U.S. officials had asked Machado at least once to delay her return after several failed attempts to enter the country.
• September: Her team said she had made seven attempts to enter in a matter of weeks. Trump said it was too soon to consider democratic elections in Venezuela.
• Sunday: Machado returned. Footage released by her team showed her at a church in the western state of Lara, greeted by supporters.

What is known about her return

Machado did not disclose her exact location or how she got in. Two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as cited by The Independent, that she flew privately from Panama to Colombia and then crossed into Venezuela over land. Her staff said she will travel overland to Caracas.

Edmundo González, a fellow opposition leader who ran for president in 2024 after Machado was barred from running, confirmed her arrival on X and said he would join her soon.

What the U.S. and Venezuelan sides said

Asked about the news, Trump told reporters he knew nothing about it and said he hoped she is safe. “She’s a very nice woman,” he said, adding that things are going well in Venezuela. He has repeatedly praised his administration’s relationship with Rodríguez and agreements involving oil production and U.S. companies.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the conditions for her safe return were the direct result of U.S.-backed reconciliation talks, which he said have already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of opposition figures return from exile. The Independent reported that he also urged all political actors to support those talks.

Venezuela’s communications ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to The Independent.

What this means for the push for elections

Rodríguez has stayed in office well beyond the 90-day period she was initially authorized to serve, Al Jazeera reported, and she has not called an election despite a promise made at the U.N. General Assembly in September. The U.S. maintains the country is not ready yet.

Machado and her allies have pressed for an election date. David Smolansky, her top foreign affairs adviser, told Reuters that she plans to meet families of political prisoners, victims of the earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June, international delegates and leaders of the democratic movement, and that she will work for a date for free and fair elections.

A faction of the opposition and Rodríguez’s government held another round of talks this month on restructuring the Supreme Court and the electoral authorities ahead of future votes. Machado’s movement is not part of those negotiations. Fox News reported that her return could complicate relations among the opposition, the interim government and Washington.

Earlier this week, thousands of Venezuelans marched to demand elections in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years, Al Jazeera reported.

Around Prague, based on reporting by Al Jazeera, The Independent, DW