Venezuelan opposition leader María Machado returns after months in exile

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned home to a fraught political landscape after more than 10 months in exile.

"I am here. With you," Machado wrote on X on Sunday. Her return comes after repeated prior efforts to re-enter the country came to no avail.

In January, a month after Machado left Venezuela on a speedboat under cover of darkness to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the US seized her opponent, President Nicolás Maduro.

The Trump administration then backed his deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, as leader and she was sworn in as interim president, later signing an oil deal which granted very favourable terms to the US.

Machado was photographed on Sunday attending Mass at a church in the Venezuelan state of Lara, surrounded by supporters hugging her and clasping her hands.

Her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo González, confirmed her arrival, writing in a statement: "I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil."

"Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!" González said.

He added that he will soon join Machado in Venezuela to advance the country "toward freedom".

An advisor to Machado said in September that over the previous few weeks Machado had attempted seven times to return to Venezuela, but was denied each time. There have been reports that the US was involved in delaying her return, which it has denied.

It's unclear what Machado plans to do next now that she's back, but she has previously said she would run for president again if an election were held. Her ability to return to her country was always contingent on approval from the Trump administration, which it appears has now been granted.

A staunch supporter of democracy, Machado won an independent presidential primary election - held outside the Maduro government's official election authority - in 2023, earning more than 90% of the vote.

Despite winning the primary, Maduro's government barred Machado from running for office, accusing her of fraud and tax violations. Machado denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated. She spent her final days in the country hiding in safehouses before her fleeing to Norway to accept the Nobel Prize.

In the 2024 election, Machado's ally González ran in her place against Maduro.

The electoral authority, which is closely aligned with the government, declared Maduro the winner without making detailed voting tallies public.

The opposition argued that González won the election, not Maduro, uploading copies of the voting tallies as evidence.

Maduro was removed from the country by US forces in January, and is currently jailed in New York where he faces drugs, weapons and torture charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

A spokesman for Machado called her return "a major step toward a democratic transition and free, fair, and verifiable presidential elections in the near future".

"We thank President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US Government, Congress, and allied governments for their continued leadership and support," her spokesperson, David Smolansky, added.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said, "I don't know anything about" her return, and added that he hoped she was "safe".

"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," he said.

In January, Machado visited the White House and gifted her Nobel prize award to Trump. The committee that issues the prize had said "it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others".

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised his country's role in securing her return through political reconciliation talks.

"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," he posted on X.

He added: "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."