Exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela

Líder da oposição venezuelana María Corina Machado, retratada aqui durante uma visita a Washington DC em janeiro, saiu do seu país de origem no ano passado para receber o Prêmio Nobel da Paz.

Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAView image in fullscreenVenezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, pictured here during a visit to Washington DC in January, exited her home country last year to receive the Nobel peace prize.

Fotografia: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAVenezuela Líder da oposição exilada María Corina Machado retorna à Venezuela O retorno da vencedora do prêmio Nobel da Paz, após quase um ano em exílio, provavelmente não agradará a presidente interina Delcy Rodríguez.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleThe Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has announced she has returned to Venezuela almost a year after she left the country to receive the Nobel peace prize.

Her close ally Edmundo González, who is in exile, confirmed her arrival. “Venezuela! I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil,” he posted on social media.

Read moreIt was not immediately clear how Machado, 59, had managed to return to Venezuela but footage on social media showed she was in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara state, which is about 220 miles west of the capital, Caracas.

Images showed Machado surrounded by supporters holding mobile phones in a church called the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess.

A administração Trump teria se oposto ao retorno de Machado à Venezuela, acreditando que sua presença complicaria a relação afetuosa que estabeleceu com a presidente interina, Delcy Rodríguez, desde a abdução de seu antigo chefe, o ditador Nicolás Maduro, em janeiro.

Machado and Rodríguez are arch political rivals.

Read moreMachado slipped out of Venezuela last December – a few weeks before Maduro’s capture – and in recent months has reportedly made more than half a dozen failed attempts to return home, including after the devastating earthquake that hit the northern coast in June.

After Maduro was seized many had expected Donald Trump to give Machado his blessing to take power. Her movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 2024 presidential election, although he refused to hand over power.

Em vez disso, o presidente dos EUA abraçou Rodríguez, vice‑presidente de Maduro, que agora governa um país amplamente visto como protetorado dos EUA.

Machado has repeatedly heaped praise on Trump for launching the operation to remove Maduro, and gave him her 2025 Nobel peace prize medal, which she had been awared for her peaceful challenge to Venezuela’s authoritarian government.

Asked by reporters on Sunday about her return, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about it, but I think she’s a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel prize, so how can I say anything else?”.