Exiled Opposition Leader Machado Returns to Venezuela
Seven Lights
The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado announced on Sunday that she had returned to Venezuela, arriving after nearly 10 months in exile to a reception that poses an immediate challenge to the country’s interim government.
Supporters gathered by the hundreds at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess in Barquisimeto, capital of Lara state about 220 miles west of Caracas, shouting “Freedom!” Machado, 59, left the church festooned with rosaries handed to her by followers, and her convoy took eight hours to reach the capital because crowds lined and blocked the streets and highways. Tens of thousands greeted her as she entered Caracas, leaning through a car sunroof to shake hands.
“This country is giving lessons to everyone,” she shouted. Writing on social media, she dedicated the return “to the reunion of every family, for freedom of every political prisoner, for the freedom of Venezuela.”
Her ally Edmundo González Urrutia, the exiled presidential candidate, confirmed the arrival on social media: “I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil.” He said he too would return “very soon.” How Machado entered the country was not immediately explained. Her party said she had attempted at least seven previous returns blocked by the authorities, including after the June earthquake on the northern coast.
Machado slipped out of Venezuela covertly in late December, weeks before US forces seized President Nicolás Maduro in January. Barred from challenging Maduro in the disputed 2024 election after a year in hiding, she left to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and has lived abroad since.
Her homecoming deepens the rift with the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and with Washington. The Trump administration had reportedly opposed the return, believing Machado’s presence would complicate the relationship it has built with the interim government since Maduro’s removal. US-backed talks on a political transition began this month without her, and President Trump has said the United States will control a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Machado’s arrival revives her claim to lead an opposition scattered by exile and imprisonment. With González expected to follow, the interim authorities face a mobilised opposition on home soil for the first time since the transition began.