Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado returns to Venezuela from exile

By Michael Rios, CNN

(CNN) — After more than 10 months in exile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has returned home to a political landscape that has been reshaped by her ally the United States without her involvement.

“I am here. With you,” Machado announced on X Sunday morning shortly before other members of the opposition confirmed her arrival without providing details.

Former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who is currently in exile, celebrated her return, saying, “Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!” He added that he will soon join her in returning to the country.

The opposition shared images of Machado on Sunday in Lara state being greeted by supporters at the Church of Santa Rosa.

US President Donald Trump said he didn’t know about her return but that he hoped she was safe.

“I don’t know anything about it, but I think she’s a very nice woman,” Trump said when CNN asked about Machado’s whereabouts. “She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say anything else? And I hope she’s safe.”

Machado left Venezuela in December for Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, which she was awarded for promoting democratic rights in her country.

A month after she left, the US toppled her rival, strongman President Nicolás Maduro, and began working with the acting Venezuelan government to steer the country toward a democratic transition and political reconciliation. The process has involved several high-profile opposition figures but has excluded Machado and González Urrutia.

Machado had repeatedly vowed to return home and hinted that she would run for president again if an election were held.

In late August, a key member of her inner circle, Omar González, returned to the country after almost three years in exile, in what he called a “prelude” to Machado’s own arrival.

Machado had attempted to re-enter Venezuela seven times over the past few months without success, according to her advisers.

She first tried in late June to help with reconstruction efforts after two powerful earthquakes devastated the country, but claimed the government thwarted her return by closing its airspace.

She tried again in late September while acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, but she was denied entry three times in a single day.

During her more than 10 months away, Machado traveled the world to rally political support from her allies, including Trump, to whom she gifted her Nobel Prize.

While the Trump administration has shown support for Machado in the past, it has largely sidelined her from Venezuela’s ongoing political transition.

After ousting Maduro in January, Trump called Machado a “very nice woman,” but claimed she “does not have the support or the respect within the country” to be leader.

Instead, the US has been working with Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, to enact political and economic reforms in the country. Rodríguez has met just about every demand from the Trump administration, including releasing hundreds of political prisoners and making it easier for US companies to invest in the country.

In late August, Trump announced that the US had reached an agreement to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela, a move some consider beneficial for both the US oil industry and the Venezuelan economy. Machado in a video statement questioned why the oil agreement announced by Trump was being signed by the Venezuelan government, which she called an “illegitimate regime.”

The government clung to power in 2024 after state-controlled electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner of the last presidential election, despite experts concluding that such a result was statistically improbable.

Rodríguez at the UN General Assembly vowed that Venezuela would hold new elections and transition to a full democracy, which the US says is the main goal, but the acting government has yet to announce when a vote will take place.

Trump has repeatedly said the country is not ready for elections yet but has insisted that a lot of progress has been made.

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CNN’s Logan Schiciano and Julia Benbrook contributed to this report.