Venezuela's Machado returns home after months in exile

· Politics · Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday after almost a year in exile. She took a private plane from Panama to Colombia and crossed overland, two people with knowledge of the matter said, announcing her return with the words "I'm here. With you." She left late last year to receive the Nobel prize, a month before the US government seized President Nicolás Maduro. Fellow opposition figure Edmundo González wrote on X that he would be next to her "very soon." Her return could test acting President Delcy Rodríguez's political opening and Washington's strategy for post-Maduro Venezuela, and risks complicating the US administration's approach.

Why it matters:Machado's return puts the opposition back on the ground in a country whose democratic transition Washington is trying to steer, raising the stakes for both Caracas and the US.

Key points

  • Machado traveled via Panama and Colombia and crossed into Venezuela overland, sources said.
  • She announced her return with the words "I'm here. With you."
  • Edmundo González wrote on X that he would join her "very soon".

Sources (original reporting)

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