Venezuela’s opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado is preparing to return home as soon as possible, Bloomberg reports, citing its sources.
According to the agency, Machado tried last week to reach the island of Curaçao from the United States with the help of private security contractors, hoping to make her way from there to Venezuela. A support team was already preparing to meet her on the Dutch island off the Venezuelan coast, but she called off the attempt after Donald Trump’s administration made clear she would be travelling at her own risk and without US support. For now, by her own account, Machado is in Panama, where she stayed after the Venezuelan authorities closed the country’s airspace in an effort to block her return.
There is no consensus in Washington. Part of the administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, backs the idea of her return in principle, while a number of US officials consider the timing wrong. According to The New York Times, two unnamed Trump administration officials described her return as “ill-timed,” and one called it a “political stunt.” Machado’s arrival risks deepening political polarisation, destabilising the situation and diverting resources from the rescue operation. The White House is for now betting on a working alliance with the interim government. Washington has sent rescuers, medical supplies and humanitarian aid, and the State Department has announced $150 million in assistance.
The latest flare-up was triggered by a disaster. On 24 June, two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck Venezuela 39 seconds apart, with epicentres in Yaracuy state. According to the latest estimates, more than 1,430 people have died, thousands have been injured and victims remain trapped under the rubble. It was against this backdrop of national mourning that Machado told Fox News “the time has come,” stressing her duty to stand alongside her compatriots.
For acting President Delcy Rodríguez, the return of her main rival comes down to a choice: either receive Machado and project national unity, or risk accusations that the authorities are narrowing political space in the midst of a catastrophe. In addition, 3 July marks the constitutional deadline for declaring the president’s “absolute absence” and calling new elections. The countdown began on 5 January 2026, when Rodríguez took office on an interim basis following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
A former member of parliament, Machado first ran for president back in 2012; in 2024 she became one of the leaders of the protest against Maduro’s re-election before being barred from the ballot. She then spent nearly a year in hiding to evade arrest, before secretly leaving the country in late 2025. In October 2025, Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Trump himself had hoped to win it; she later, by her own account, handed the medal to the US president as a token of gratitude (the Nobel Committee noted that the prize cannot be transferred). In January 2026, the United States overthrew Maduro, yet Trump publicly cast doubt on Machado’s ability to lead the country, saying she had “no support and no respect” inside Venezuela.
