Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday, 25 October, after about ten months outside the country, and reappeared in public at a church in Barquisimeto, some 400 kilometres west of Caracas. "Estoy aquí. Con ustedes" ("I am here. With you"), she wrote that day on her X account. Opposition leader Edmundo González announced on the same network that Machado was already on Venezuelan soil.
From Barquisimeto she led a motorcade by road to the capital. She was seen in Guacara, in Carabobo state, singing the national anthem with supporters, and thousands of people accompanied her in cars and on motorcycles along the route. "Venezuela is giving the whole world a lesson," she told her followers, according to the Ecuadorean newspaper El Universo.
Nine attempts, according to the Spanish press
Her party, Vente Venezuela, says Machado had tried to return at least seven times without success, with a cancelled boat trip and a denied landing permit for a flight to Curaçao. The Spanish newspaper ABC, cited by Bloomberg Línea, reported that this time she entered from Colombia, on her second attempt by that route and her ninth since June.
Machado left Venezuela in late 2025, after months in hiding inside the country, and reappeared in Norway in December of that year to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
Willing to sit down with the interim president
Vente Venezuela spokeswoman Claudia Macero told Unión Radio on Monday that Machado is willing to "sit down not only with Delcy, but with whoever is necessary," referring to interim president Delcy Rodríguez. While she was trying to return, speaking from Panama, Machado had already said she was open to "talking to whoever needs to be talked to."
The interim government had not commented on the return as of this writing. Jorge Arreaza, of the official delegation at the dialogue table, said the talks aim to create conditions for political activity within the Constitution, without offering specific guarantees for Machado.
Delcy Rodríguez has governed on an interim basis since January, when a United States military operation captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. The Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (Venezuela's supreme court) authorised that interim term for up to 90 days, and the Asamblea Nacional (Venezuela's national assembly) never voted on an extension.
Washington's role
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio credited the return to the reconciliation talks backed by Washington, which he said had freed hundreds of political prisoners and "represent the best opportunity" Venezuela has had in 30 years. Rubio added that Machado had "every right to enter her own country." US officials deny obstructing her return, though they acknowledge that at some point they advised her against attempting it for safety reasons.
President Donald Trump said he did not know the details of the return, described Machado as "a very nice woman" and recalled that she had given him her Nobel Prize. According to ABC, the US administration was divided until the last moment, and Florida lawmakers warned the White House about the political cost of appearing to block the return, days before the 3 November midterm elections in the United States.
In recent months Washington and Caracas restored diplomatic relations, severed since 2019, and in August they announced an oil agreement giving the United States access to roughly a quarter of Venezuela's crude reserves. Last week the United States lifted financial sanctions on Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Asamblea Nacional and the interim president's brother.
No election date
No date has been set for a presidential election. Machado and her allies are demanding an electoral calendar; US officials have said economic stability must come first, and Delcy Rodríguez told the United Nations in September that Venezuelans would decide when to vote.
Within the opposition, the Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (the Venezuelan opposition coalition) welcomed the return and said it should give new momentum to the fight for democracy. Henry Alviarez, of Vente Venezuela, called for a firm electoral calendar and criticised the negotiating table, which he described as a "stool" that is not listening to the public.
The return settles the most visible point of the past months' standoff — Machado's physical presence in the country — and leaves open the three that matter for what comes next: the date of the vote, the guarantees for opposition political activity and the terms of any transition.
With information from Telemundo, Bloomberg Línea, El Universo, Cadena 3 and EFE.
