Venezuelan Opposition Leader Machado Comes Home After More Than 10 Months in Exile

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to her country after spending more than 10 months in exile. She announced her arrival on Sunday in a post on X. "I am here. With you," she wrote.

Edmundo González, her ally and a former presidential candidate, confirmed the news within minutes. "I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil," he wrote. He added that he expects to join her in Venezuela soon to help move the country "toward freedom".

Photographs showed Machado attending Mass at a church in the state of Lara, where supporters embraced her and held her hands. González described the day as an important one for Venezuelans, saying their "sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!"

Machado left Venezuela in December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. A month later, in January, the United States seized President Nicolás Maduro, her political opponent. The Trump administration then backed his deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president and later signed an oil deal with the US.

Machado's return followed earlier setbacks. In September, one of her advisors said she had tried seven times in the preceding weeks to go back to Venezuela and had been turned away each time. It remains unclear what she intends to do now, though she has said before that she would run for president again if an election were held.

She has long been a committed advocate for democracy. In 2023 she won an independent presidential primary, organized outside the official electoral authority of the Maduro government, with more than 90% of the vote. The government nevertheless barred her from holding office, accusing her of fraud and tax violations. Machado rejected the accusations and called them politically motivated.

González ran in her place against Maduro in the 2024 election. The electoral authority, which is closely aligned with the government, declared Maduro the winner but did not release detailed voting tallies. The opposition maintained that González had won and published copies of the tallies as evidence.

In a statement given to Margaret Brennan of CBS News, the BBC's US partner, a spokesperson for Machado described her return as "a major step toward a democratic transition and free, fair, and verifiable presidential elections in the near future". The spokesperson, David Smolansky, thanked President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US government, Congress and allied governments for their "continued leadership and support".