Now home, Venezuela opposition leader Machado walks tightrope with supporters and Trump

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado greets supporters upon her arrival in Caracas on Sunday. | AFP-JIJI

Oct 27, 2026

CARACAS/BOGOTA – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who returned on Sunday after nearly a year away, will walk a tightrope as she seeks the elections her supporters want without running afoul of a U.S.-backed negotiation process between the interim government and other opposition groups.

Machado’s return to Venezuela after several failed attempts risks straining her ties with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Washington has said she has every right to be in Venezuela, but has praised acting President Delcy Rodriguez and supports a negotiation process between the Rodriguez government and opposition groups that do not include Machado’s Vente Venezuela movement.

The talks, which have continued this month, would remake the electoral council and top court ahead of eventual elections. Both bodies are staffed by ruling party loyalists and backed ousted President Nicolas Maduro in a disputed 2024 presidential election, despite tallies published by Machado’s movement that showed her candidate had won. The U.S. military captured Maduro in January.

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