Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returns home after more than 10 months in exile

On Sunday, María Corina Machado stood inside a church in the Venezuelan state of Lara, hearing Mass while supporters hugged her and clasped her hands. It was her first public appearance at home after more than ten months away. "I am here. With you," she wrote afterward on X.

She then set out for Caracas in a caravan of cheering supporters, with more people lining the route. Late that night she entered the capital, photographed smiling as she leaned out of a car's sunroof. "Night of reunion in our Caracas," she wrote, adding that the reunion was for every family, for the freedom of each political prisoner and for the freedom of Venezuela.

Her exile began in December, when she left the country on a speedboat under cover of darkness to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. She had spent her last days in Venezuela hiding in safehouses. A month later, in January, US forces seized her opponent, President Nicolás Maduro, and removed him from the country. He is now jailed in New York, facing drugs, weapons and torture charges, and has pleaded not guilty.

The Trump administration then backed Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president. She later signed an oil deal that gave the United States very favourable terms. In January, Machado visited the White House and gave her Nobel award to Trump, though the prize committee had said it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred.

Her path home was not smooth. An adviser said in September that she had tried seven times in the preceding weeks to return and had been turned back each time. There were reports that the US helped delay her return, which Washington has denied. Her ability to come back was always contingent on the Trump administration's approval, and that approval appears now to have been given.

Machado's standing comes from 2023, when she won an independent primary, held outside the government's electoral authority, with more than 90% of the vote. Maduro's government barred her from running, accusing her of fraud and tax violations, which she denied and called politically motivated. Her ally Edmundo González ran in her place in 2024. The electoral authority, closely aligned with the government, declared Maduro the winner without publishing detailed tallies. The opposition uploaded copies of voting tallies and argued González had won.

González confirmed her arrival in a statement: "our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil." He called it a very important day, said her sovereign voice returns to lead and guide the process, and said he will soon join her in Venezuela. Her spokesman, David Smolansky, called the return "a major step toward a democratic transition" and free, fair and verifiable presidential elections in the near future. He thanked Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Congress and allied governments.

Trump, asked by reporters, said he knew nothing about her return and hoped she was safe. "She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say anything else?" he said. Rubio, by contrast, credited US-supported reconciliation talks for the conditions allowing her safe return, saying they have already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of opposition figures return from exile. He said he expects all political actors to back the talks, which he called Venezuela's best chance in thirty years at a free and fair election and an enduring democracy.

What Machado does next is unclear. She has said she would run for president again if an election were held. No election date has been announced, so the timeline for a transition is what to watch.