25.10.2026 21:30
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado announced that she has returned to her country after nearly a year in exile. "I am here. I am with you," Machado said, adding that she will carry out efforts for free and fair elections. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he had not been aware of Machado's return and that things were going well in Venezuela. Trump claimed that the US had full control in the country and that they were extracting millions of barrels of oil a week.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned to her country. After nearly a year in exile, Machado announced that she had returned to Venezuela, saying, "I am here. I am with you." Machado did not share additional details about her current location or how she returned to the country.
In a statement, Machado's chief adviser David Smolansky said that Machado plans to meet with victims of the earthquakes that struck Venezuela last June, families of political prisoners, the international community, and various leaders of the democratic movement in Venezuela. Smolansky said, "She will work actively to set a date for free and fair elections."
GONZALEZ ALSO SIGNALS A RETURN Another exiled Venezuelan opposition leader living in Spain, Edmundo Gonzalez, confirmed Machado's return to the country and stated that he would soon join her.
Edmundo Gonzalez "THINGS ARE GOING REALLY WELL FOR US IN VENEZUELA" US President Donald Trump said he was not aware of Machado's return to Venezuela and implied that the US would continue to support Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez. Calling Machado "a very nice woman," Trump said, "But things are going really well for us in Venezuela."
In an interview with Fox News, Trump claimed that the US "has full control in Venezuela," saying, "We are acting very fairly. But we are extracting millions of barrels of oil a week."
After the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, Trump did not support Machado, who argued that she had won the 2024 elections, as the country's new leader. The US President had instead supported Maduro's former Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, rather than Machado.
SHE IS KNOWN FOR HER OPPOSITION TO THE MADURO GOVERNMENT Born in Venezuela in 1967, Maria Corina Machado is known for her fight against the government of President Nicolas Maduro in her country. Machado, who entered politics in 2002 and is now regarded as the leader of the opposition against Maduro, first ran for president in 2012 but lost the opposition primary. Having won the opposition primary in 2023, Machado became the opposition candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election, but later had to withdraw because she was barred from holding public office by a judicial ruling.
After the opposition declared victory over Maduro in the elections, Machado, who became the face of the country's protests, withdrew from public view on August 1, 2024, due to threats she received, and stated in a letter written to the Wall Street Journal that she had to hide because of the risk of arrest and assassination. When she first reappeared in public this January, there was an unsuccessful attempt to arrest her, and several shots were fired at her vehicle.
SHE COULD NOT GO TO RECEIVE THE NOBEL PRIZE The Maduro government had announced that if the opposition leader who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to Oslo, they would brand Machado as a fugitive. At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony held at City Hall in Norway's capital, Oslo, on December 11, 2025, Machado's daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado received her award.