Machado Returns to Venezuela After 10 Months, Pushes for a Vote

What happened

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, is back in Venezuela. She announced her return on Sunday, Oct. 25, with a short post on X, “I am here. With you,” after more than 10 months outside the country, CBS News reported.

Her first public stop was a church in the western state of Lara. From there, crowds slowed her convoy so much that the trip to Caracas took about eight hours, i24NEWS reported, putting the crowds in the tens of thousands. She reached the capital late Sunday, leaning out of a sunroof to greet supporters.

Her team has not said how she got in. People familiar with the trip told i24NEWS she flew privately from Panama to Colombia and crossed by land, and The New York Times, citing two government officials, also reported an entry from Colombia, according to Time.

Why it matters

A majority of Venezuelans want Machado as president, according to an AtlasIntel/Bloomberg poll cited by Time. Yet she has been shut out of the arrangement that has run the country this year.

After U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, became acting president with the Trump administration’s support, Al Jazeera reported. Rodríguez has worked with Washington on reforms and on an oil deal covering more than 65 billion barrels’ worth of reserves.

Washington’s position is that the country needs political and economic stability before it votes. Critics say business interests, including that oil deal, have come first, Time reported. Meanwhile, talks over Venezuela’s future have been held between the interim government and a different, U.S.-backed opposition faction. Machado’s movement was not part of them, and the most recent round ended this month with no firm election schedule.

Her return puts the country’s best-known election advocate back on home soil just days after thousands of Venezuelans marched for free elections in the opposition’s first protest of that scale in almost two years, according to Al Jazeera.

How we got here

The deadline math

Venezuela’s top court allowed Rodríguez an interim term of 90 days, extendable by another 90, Time reported. The ruling-party-controlled National Assembly never voted on the extension, so the term lapsed in April. Even if the full 180 days had been granted, that would have run out around July. By late October, she has been in office for roughly nine months.

Machado is asking for elections by July 2027, about nine months from now. She has said that is “more than enough time” to prepare.

Who says what

• Machado’s camp: Her foreign affairs adviser, David Smolansky, said she will meet earthquake victims, families of political prisoners and democratic leaders, and will press for a fixed date for a free, fair vote, per i24NEWS.
• Edmundo González: The opposition’s 2024 presidential candidate, who lives in Spain, said he would join her soon.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio: He credited U.S.-supported reconciliation talks, which he said have freed hundreds of political prisoners and allowed hundreds of exiles to return.
• President Donald Trump: He said he didn’t know about the return but called Machado “a very nice woman” and said he hoped she was safe. She gave Trump her Nobel medal at the White House earlier this year, though tensions between her and the administration have grown since, Time reported.

The sources reviewed for this article did not include a response from Rodríguez’s government.

What to watch

• An election date: Rodríguez promised elections at the United Nations in September but hasn’t set one. Trump said in September it was too soon to consider them.
• Machado’s safety and freedom to campaign: Rubio said the U.S. expects political freedoms for all sides to be respected.
• The talks: Machado has said her movement won’t block efforts that produce real progress, even though it isn’t at the table.
• González’s return: His arrival would reunite the two faces of the 2024 opposition campaign inside Venezuela.

Quick answers

Is María Corina Machado back in Venezuela?

Yes. She returned on Oct. 25, 2026, appearing first in Lara state and then in Caracas, after more than 10 months abroad.

Why did Machado leave Venezuela?

She slipped out in December 2025 to collect her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, defying a travel ban imposed by Maduro’s government, and her later attempts to return were blocked.

Who is running Venezuela now?

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, has governed with U.S. backing since Maduro’s capture in January 2026. No presidential election date has been set.