Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who pipped Donald Trump to win 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, returns home after a year in exile

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who pipped Donald Trump to the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, has returned home after nearly a year abroad.

Ms Machado, 59, has been in exile since covertly leaving her South American homeland late last year to receive the award.

'I'm here. With you all,' she wrote on social media early on Sunday, addressing her fellow countrymen. 

She appeared on Sunday at a church in the city of Barquisimeto in northwestern Venezuela, surrounded by cheering supporters. Her Vente Venezuela party said she had previously made several unsuccessful attempts to return, each of which had been blocked.

However, her return risks straining ties with the Trump administration. In January the US captured the country's then-incumbent president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a raid, before flying them to New York to face criminal charges.

Ms Machado has heaped praise on Mr Trump for launching the controversial operation, and even gave him her Nobel Prize medal. 

She has been in exile for ten months since secretly travelling to Norway in late 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for what judges called 'her efforts to advance democracy in Venezuela'. Machado was initially barred by Mr Maduro's government from exiting the country after spending more than a year living mostly in hiding.

Since Mr Maduro was overthrown, Washington has allowed his deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, to rule as interim president. Rodriguez went on to sign a favourable oil deal with the US in August. 

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures upon arriving at a church in Lara, Venezuela on October 25, 2026 after returning to the country following a year in exile

Supporters greet and take photographs of Ms Machado inside the church on October 25, 2026

It is not clear what Ms Machado's plans are now she is back on Venezuelan soil, or how she made it back into the country, but she has said in the past she would run for president again if new elections were held. 

Her return was celebrated by her ally Edmundo González Urrutia, who ran as opposition presidential candidate in 2024 in her stead. He called her the country's 'sovereign voice'.  

He wrote on social media: 'Venezuela! I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear Maria Corina, is on Venezuelan soil. 

'Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns to lead and guide this process! 

'Very soon I will be with you and with her so that our country truly advances toward freedom.' 

In 2023 Ms Machado announced her intention to run for president, winning an independent presidential primary to decide the opposition's candidate with more than 90 per cent of the vote.

However, she was barred from running for office by the Maduro administration, who accused her of fraud and tax violations. 

Ms Machado has consistently said the allegations against her were ideologically motivated. She went into hiding after the 2024 vote, which the opposition and much of the international community accused Mr Maduro of stealing.

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

In a sign of her awkward position, Ms Machado has been sidelined from US-sponsored talks toward a democratic transition between the interim government and opposition representatives.

But an alliance of Venezuelan opposition parties earlier this month reaffirmed Ms Machado as its leader.

Demonstrators hold up a sign reading 'Elections now!' during a protest in Caracas, Venezuela on October 22, 2026 

'We are at the beginning of a new era. We will finally make the liberal democratic republic a reality - Venezuela will be free,' Ms Machado told the alliance.

'I have always been grateful to the president of the United States for opening a door to progress toward freedom, democracy and true sovereignty,' she added.

This week, thousands demonstrated in Caracas and other cities, demanding her return from exile in Panama.

In Caracas, protesters carried signs that read 'Elections NOW and this time they're not going to steal from us' and 'Brave MCM', referring to Ms Machado's initials.

However, Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for interim President Delcy Rodriguez and hailed deals on oil production and other business ventures by US companies in the South American country. 

The US President said in September that it was too soon to consider democratic elections in Venezuela.

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

Ms 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, which killed at least 6,500 people and left thousands missing. 

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 Ms Machado's political movement.

In 1992, Ms Machado established the Atenea Foundation (Fundación Atenea) which cares for orphaned and delinquent street children in Caracas. A decade later she was a co-founder of Súmate, an election monitoring NGO. 

She was elected to the National Assembly in 2010 with a record number of votes, but expelled from office in 2014 by speaker Diosdado Cabello – a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court of Venezuela. 

Ms Machado has led the Vente Venezuela opposition party since 2011 and in 2017 helped found the Soy Venezuela alliance, which aims to unite bipartisan pro-democracy forces in the country.