Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado returned to her home country on Sunday after nearly a year abroad, following several failed attempts to return that strained her relationship with US President Donald Trump’s administration.
“I’m here. With you all,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner wrote on X.
Machado appeared at a church in western Lara state, according to images shared by her press team. A Reuters witness said supporters sang the national anthem and shouted “liberty!” as she left in an SUV. Her team said she would travel by road to Caracas.
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Machado’s return comes amid uncertainty over her relationship with the Trump administration, which she has sought to cultivate as an ally since before the US removed President Nicolas Maduro from power in January. US officials had asked her at least once to delay her return, Reuters reported in June, and she had made several unsuccessful attempts to enter Venezuela.
Her team did not disclose how she managed to return to the country. However, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Machado took a private plane from Panama to Colombia before crossing overland into Venezuela.
Trump said on Sunday that he did not know about Machado’s return and indicated that Washington would continue to support interim President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump said, referring to Machado. “But we’re doing really well in Venezuela.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed support for Rodriguez and welcomed deals involving US companies in Venezuela’s oil industry and other business sectors. In September, he said it was too soon to consider holding democratic elections in the South American country.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, attributed the conditions for Machado’s return to US-supported reconciliation talks between political factions.
“The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela are the direct result of the US-supported reconciliation talks which have already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile,” Rubio said in a statement.
He urged all political actors to support the talks, describing them as the best opportunity in three decades to achieve free and fair elections and lasting democracy in Venezuela.
A faction of the opposition and the interim government held their latest round of talks this month, discussing plans to reform the country’s top court and electoral council ahead of eventual elections. Machado’s political movement is not part of the negotiations.
The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on her return.
MEETINGS WITH VICTIMS AND OPPOSITION LEADERS
Machado plans to meet families of political prisoners, victims of the deadly earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June, representatives of the international community and leaders of the country’s democratic movement, her top foreign affairs adviser David Smolansky told Reuters.
“She will work proactively for a date for free and fair elections,” Smolansky said.
Supporters welcomed her return in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara state. “Maria Corina Machado will achieve liberty and democracy in Venezuela,” said Hernan Adames, 69.
Machado has argued that only a “serious, democratic government” can provide the stability required to attract investors. Last month, international energy companies committed to expanding their projects in Venezuela at a signing ceremony overseen by Rodriguez and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
The opposition leader had been barred from leaving Venezuela under Maduro’s government. After spending more than a year largely in hiding, she secretly left the country in late 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Her Vente Venezuela movement launched an app on Saturday to collect voter registration information from Venezuelans living abroad. The group hopes to eventually share the data with a reformed electoral council so that users can be officially added to voter rolls.
Edmundo Gonzalez, the former presidential candidate backed by Machado’s movement who has been living in Spain, said on X that he would soon join her in Venezuela.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
