Machado says she'll return this year, testing Venezuela's leader

Andreina Itriago and Fabiola Zerpa, Bloomberg News on Apr 20, 2026

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María Corina Machado said she will return to Venezuela this year, a move that will test acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s tolerance for dissent and the U.S. commitment to back the opposition leader it once pledged to protect.

Machado expects to return before the end of 2026 and “absolutely” sees herself back in Venezuela soon, she told Reuters in an interview Sunday. “It is very important to start taking steps towards what the whole country requires and demands, which is free and fair elections,” she said.

A day earlier, the Nobel Peace Prize winner told reporters in Madrid she was coordinating her return with the U.S., without offering a timeline.

Machado’s arrival in the South American nation would mark a dramatic shift. The Venezuelan government remains in firm control of the military and state institutions, even under pressure from the Trump administration after the Jan. 3 capture of socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces.

Her return will add pressure on both Venezuela’s interim authorities and the U.S. government to accelerate transition plans and set a date for elections. It also sets up a direct challenge for Rodríguez, who has consolidated power since Maduro’s ouster and sought to reintegrate the country’s oil industry and economy into the Western financial system through a series of reforms.

It remains to be seen whether Rodríguez will allow Machado to operate openly as a critic or move to sideline her under a legal or political process that curtails her influence, risking friction with Washington. The interim president told NBC in February that Machado would have to “answer for her actions before the Venezuelan people,” citing her calls for military intervention and sanctions.

Rodríguez’s government has released roughly 760 prisoners this year, according to Caracas-based rights group Foro Penal, including opposition figures and several of Machado’s closest aides. But some of them have criticized the amnesty law, saying it still imposes restrictions on dissent.

Machado’s return will also test Washington. President Donald Trump, who has met her twice, said he has “a lot of respect for” the opposition leader who left him “very, very impressed” after an initial 45-minute Oval Office meeting. He has said he would like to get her “involved in some way,” without specifying a role.

U.S. officials have urged Machado to be patient as they work to stabilize the Venezuelan economy and put it on a path to recovery.

The opposition leader recalibrated her strategy after Maduro’s capture, acknowledging that a transition period is necessary before democracy can return. She has dropped earlier demands that the 2024 vote her candidate won be recognized and instead framed the process as unfolding in phases.

“We are an elected government, and yet, to facilitate this transition — which is a plan detailed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio — it involves an electoral process,” Machado told Antena 3 television on Monday. “We have said, ‘Agreed, let’s go to elections,’ but the country needs certainty regarding these phases and timelines.”

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(With assistance from Patricia Laya.)