Venezuela opposition leader Machado returns home after fraught year in exile

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned to the South American nation after nearly a year outside the country, she said on social media on Sunday.

“I’m here. With you all,” the ‌Nobel Peace Prize-winning Machado wrote on social media early on Sunday.

Machado’s press team shared images of her in central-western Lara state, in the Plaza del Pueblo de Santa Rosa, where Machado appeared at a church.

The issue of her return has strained her relationship with the Trump administration, which she has sought to cultivate as an ally even before it removed president Nicolas Maduro from power in January.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for interim President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy, and hailed deals on oil production and other business ventures by US companies in the South ⁠American country. Trump said in September it was too soon to consider democratic elections in Venezuela.

Speaking at the White House on Sunday, Trump said he did ‌not know anything about Machado’s return to Venezuela and suggested that the US would continue to back Rodriguez.

“She’s a very nice woman,” he said, referring to Machado. “But we’re doing really well in Venezuela.”

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During an interview on Fox News on Sunday, ‌Trump also said that the US had “total control of Venezuela”.

“We’re being very fair,” he said. “But we’re taking out millions of barrels of ⁠oil a week.”

Neither the White House ⁠nor the Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles all press queries for the government, immediately responded to requests for comment on Machado’s return.

Machado plans to meet victims of the deadly earthquakes that struck Venezuela ‌in June, as well as the families of political prisoners, the international community and various leaders from the democratic movement in Venezuela, David Smolansky, her top foreign affairs adviser, told Reuters.

“She will work proactively ‌for a ‌date for free and fair elections,” he said.

International energy firms committed last month to expanding projects in the country in a signing ceremony overseen by Rodriguez ‌and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Machado has said only a “serious, democratic government” can provide the stability needed by investors. In June, she said she would do whatever ⁠it took to come home and help the survivors of devastating twin earthquakes that month that killed at least 6,500 people and left thousands missing.

Machado was ⁠barred by Maduro’s government from exiting Venezuela but she secretly left in late 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, after spending more than a year living mostly in hiding.

Her desire to return had caused friction in Washington, with US officials asking her to delay her ‌trip, Reuters reported in June.

Machado did not disclose ‌more details about her current location or how she returned.

A faction of the opposition and the interim government held their latest session of talks this month, which aim to remake the top court and electoral council, among other goals, ahead of eventual elections. They do not include Machado’s political movement.

Edmundo Gonzalez, a former presidential candidate for Machado’s movement who has been living in Spain, confirmed her return in his own post and said he would soon join her.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said Machado’s return had been made possible by Washington-backed talks on the country’s democratic future.

“The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela is the direct result of the US supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile,” Rubio wrote on social media.

“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.”