Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado Returns Home After Nearly a Year Abroad, With No Election Scheduled

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to her country on Sunday after nearly a year away, Fox News reports.

The return. "I'm here. With you all," Machado wrote on social media, announcing her return for the first time since December. She did not say where she is or how she got in. A Reuters photo carried by Fox shows her arriving at a church in Lara state. Opposition figure Edmundo González, who ran for president in 2024 after Machado was barred, confirmed her arrival on X and said he will join her "very soon." He wrote that "our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process."

Trump's reaction. Asked by reporters in Port Huron, Michigan, Trump said he did not know about it but called her "a very nice woman" who "gave me her Nobel Prize." He said, "I hope she's safe. But we're doing really well in Venezuela." Fox notes Machado presented the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 2025 to Trump last week.

The landscape. She returns nearly 10 months after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January. Delcy Rodríguez, his former vice president, remains acting president with Trump administration backing and has gone past the period she was first authorized to serve. No presidential election is scheduled. Trump said in September it was too soon for elections, and U.S. officials are prioritizing economic stabilization. Machado and her allies want a date set.

The friction. Fox says her return could complicate ties among the opposition, the interim government and Washington. Reuters reported in June that U.S. officials had asked her to delay it. Talks this month between a faction of the opposition and Rodríguez's government on reforms to the Supreme Court and election authorities have not included Machado's movement.

Note for readers: details of her route and any security arrangements are unreported. The June Reuters claim is secondhand through Fox.