María Corina Machado Returns to Venezuela After Exile

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after more than 10 months in exile, reentering a country whose political leadership changed following the seizure of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States in January. Machado announced her return on Sunday, October 25, 2026, while her political ally Edmundo González Urrutia subsequently confirmed that she was back on Venezuelan soil.

Machado's return follows a period of significant political upheaval. According to the BBC, she left Venezuela in December 2025 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. One month later, the United States seized Maduro, while his deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, assumed the role of interim president with backing from the Trump administration.

Machado announced her arrival in a post on X on Sunday, directly addressing her supporters.

"I am here. With you," Machado wrote on X.

Her return was subsequently confirmed by González Urrutia, a former presidential candidate and one of her political allies. His announcement publicly welcomed Machado back to the country after her extended absence.

"I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil," González Urrutia wrote.

The political transition followed the US seizure of Maduro in January, according to the BBC. The Trump administration subsequently supported Rodríguez as the country's leader, and she was sworn in as interim president.

Rodríguez later signed an oil deal with the United States, marking another development in relations between Washington and Venezuela following Maduro's removal from power.

The BBC published its initial report on Machado's return on October 25, 2026, and indicated that the breaking news story was still being updated as further details became available.