Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado has returned to her country after nearly a year abroad. "I'm here. With you all," she wrote on social media early on Sunday.
Her press team released images of her at a church in Santa Rosa, in the central-western state of Lara. Machado did not say where she was staying or how she had re-entered the country. Barred by Nicolas Maduro's government from leaving Venezuela, she secretly left in late 2025 to collect the Nobel Peace Prize after more than a year living mostly in hiding.
Her return has strained ties with US President Donald Trump's administration. Washington removed Maduro from power in January, and Trump has repeatedly backed interim President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's former deputy. Speaking at the White House on Sunday, Trump said he knew nothing about Machado's return. "She's a very nice woman," he said. "But we're doing really well in Venezuela." In September, Trump said it was too soon to consider democratic elections in the country.
Her foreign affairs adviser David Smolansky said Machado plans to meet victims of June's twin earthquakes, which killed at least 6,500 people, as well as families of political prisoners and leaders of the democratic movement, and "will work proactively for a date for free and fair elections." Edmundo Gonzalez, the movement's former presidential candidate, confirmed her return and said he would soon join her.