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.
“In Venezuela! Together! For freedom!” she posted on X Sunday night, alongside a video of her greeting a crowd of cheering supporters that surrounded her car, waving Venezuelan flags and blasting joyous music.
Later, she posted she had reached the capital city Caracas – where an equally excited crowd rushed to welcome her and the caravan of vehicles following her journey. People crammed onto overpasses and highways hoping to catch a glimpse of her while a sea of phone cameras flashed in the night.
“It was truly a source of hope for me, for my children, for my grandchildren, and for all Venezuelans,” one supporter in Caracas told CNN. “Just as María Corina returned to Venezuela, my children will return home too.”
The Nobel Prize laureate rose to prominence in recent years for her dogged fight for democracy in Venezuela, facing down now-ousted former dictator Nicolás Maduro. She has mostly stayed in hiding after Venezuela’s disputed 2024 presidential election, after which government-controlled electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner – allowing him to cling to power until his capture by US special forces in a remarkable raid in January.
Machado’s return from exile raises questions about the uncertain future of Venezuela’s government as it works to transition into a democracy through US-brokered negotiations – that so far have excluded her.
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’s Julia Benbrook 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. (BBC)
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