Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corino Machado wants to return to the country. She fled there (secretly) under Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado plans to return to the country as soon as possible, Bloomberg writes, citing sources.

According to the agency's interlocutors, several US officials warned Machado that her return could provoke a clash with the current authorities and distract attention from rescue efforts after the largest earthquake, which killed more than 1,400 people.

However, there is no consensus in the Trump administration, and some of its representatives, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the contrary, support the idea of ​​Machado’s return, sources say. However, Machado is urged not to rush, as returning too early could increase political polarization and destabilize the country.

Machado's return, as Bloomberg notes, would present Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez with a choice: either embrace her main political rival in a show of national unity, or face accusations that her government is narrowing political space at a time of national catastrophe.

• Maria Corino Machado was a member of the Venezuelan parliament and ran for president in 2012. In 2024, when Nicolas Maduro was re-elected for another term, she was one of the leaders of the protest against his government. For ten years, Machado was banned from leaving Venezuela. After the protests, she spent almost a year in hiding, evading an arrest warrant, and secretly left Venezuela in the fall of 2025.
• In October 2025, Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize, which Donald Trump had hoped to receive. The prize was awarded to her with the wording “for her tireless work to defend the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela and the struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
• In January 2026, the United States overthrew Nicolas Maduro. Machado said the opposition was ready to take power in Venezuela, but Trump said it would be difficult for her to become the country's leader because she "has no support and no respect" within Venezuela. Sources told The Washington Post that Trump did not support Machado because she did not give him the Nobel Prize. Machado later gave her Peace Prize medal to Trump (although the Nobel Committee noted that the award could not be transferred).