María Corina Machado Returns to Venezuela After Months Abroad
Qwenews.com – Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado has returned to the country after spending more than 10 months outside Venezuela, reappearing at a time when the nation’s political transition has advanced without her direct participation.
Machado announced her arrival early Sunday in a brief message on X.
I am here. With you,
Other opposition representatives later confirmed that she had returned, though they did not release details about her route or immediate plans. Images circulated by the opposition showed Machado in Lara state, where supporters welcomed her at the Church of Santa Rosa.
Her homecoming places one of Venezuela’s best-known opposition leaders back inside the country after a turbulent period that included the removal of former President Nicolás Maduro and negotiations over a possible democratic opening. Machado left Venezuela in December to travel to Norway, where she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in recognition of her work promoting democratic rights.
A return shaped by a changing political landscape
One month after Machado departed, the United States removed Maduro from power and began engaging with Venezuela’s acting government on political reconciliation and a transition toward democratic rule. The talks have included several prominent members of the opposition, but Machado and former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia have largely remained outside that process.
Dinorah Figuera, who has led negotiations for the opposition bloc, linked Machado’s return to Maduro’s removal and to the reconciliation effort now underway. The significance of Machado’s arrival extends beyond symbolism: she returns as opposition groups, Venezuelan authorities and US officials confront questions over political freedoms, elections and the country’s future leadership.
González Urrutia, who remains in exile, described the day as important for Venezuelans and said he also expects to return soon.
Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!
Machado has previously said she intended to return to Venezuela and has suggested she could seek the presidency again if elections are held. Her return may give fresh momentum to supporters who have viewed her as a central voice in the opposition movement, even as the formal transition discussions have taken a separate course.
US reaction and calls for political guarantees
US President Donald Trump said he had not been informed of Machado’s return when asked about it, but expressed hope that she would be protected.
I don’t know anything about it, but I think she’s a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say anything else? And I hope she’s safe.
Machado had presented Trump with her Nobel Prize during her efforts abroad to build international backing for Venezuela’s opposition. Although the Trump administration has voiced support for her at different moments, it has also kept its distance from her role in the country’s current political restructuring.
Following Maduro’s removal in January, Trump called Machado a “very nice woman” but questioned whether she had sufficient support and standing within Venezuela to lead the country. Washington instead has worked with acting President Delcy Rodríguez on political and economic measures.
Rodríguez has met several US demands, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and steps intended to make investment by American companies easier. In late August, Trump said the United States had reached an arrangement for majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves.
The relationship between Washington and Venezuela’s acting government has therefore become a major part of the broader transition. For Machado, returning to Venezuela means operating in a landscape shaped both by domestic negotiations and by a powerful external partner seeking political and economic change.
Repeated efforts to come home
Machado’s advisers said she had made seven unsuccessful attempts to re-enter Venezuela in recent months. Her first effort came in late June, when she sought to help reconstruction work after two powerful earthquakes struck the country. She said authorities blocked that effort by closing Venezuelan airspace.
She made another attempt in late September, while Rodríguez was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Machado was denied entry three times in one day during that effort.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had raised security concerns about a possible return on September 1, while emphasizing that Machado did not need Washington’s permission to go back to her own country.
María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan citizen, has every right to enter her country whenever she wants to return. We have given her advice. For example, during the earthquake, we had many concerns and will continue to have concerns in the future, but we want her safety to be guaranteed.
Rubio repeated the importance of political rights after Machado’s arrival and urged every political force in Venezuela to back the dialogue process.
The United States expects the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to continue to be respected. Likewise, 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.
Machado’s return follows the August arrival of Omar González, a member of her inner circle who had spent nearly three years in exile. He described his own return as a prelude to hers.
For Venezuelans, Machado’s presence inside the country introduces a consequential new element into an already delicate transition. Whether she gains a formal role in negotiations, mounts another presidential campaign or focuses on rebuilding her political movement, her return ensures that a leading figure long absent from the daily political arena is once again part of Venezuela’s unfolding national debate.
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