As Machado returns to Venezuela, the country’s best-known opposition leader is back at the center of its politics. A day after crowds lined the roads into Caracas on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, Machado said on Monday that she is ready to sit down with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who has run Venezuela with Washington’s backing since Nicolás Maduro was seized by U.S. forces in January.
Machado “has said she is willing to sit down not only with Delcy (Rodríguez), but with whoever she needs to sit down with, before the country, with full transparency and with an agenda,” her spokesperson Claudia Macero told the broadcaster Unión Radio, according to Euronews. The 59-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been in exile for about 10 months after slipping out of Venezuela in December 2025 to collect the prize in Oslo.
Machado returns to Venezuela in a convoy to Caracas
Thousands of supporters gathered along highways, toll booths and city streets as Machado’s convoy of cars and motorcycles drove from the western state of Lara to the capital, the BBC and Euronews reported. Many waved flags and chanted “Freedom!” Party sources told Euronews she had tried to return at least seven times without success; the BBC put the number of attempts by air and sea at no fewer than eight. The BBC reported that both the Venezuelan government and the Trump administration had blocked earlier attempts, with Washington saying the “time wasn’t right.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said her “safe return” was “the direct result of the US-supported reconciliation talks,” according to the BBC. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had not known about her return but called her “a very nice woman,” adding, “She gave me her Nobel Prize, so what else can I say?” Machado still faces charges in Venezuela, including treason and conspiracy, which she and her supporters call politically motivated.
Delcy Rodríguez responds
Rodríguez said Monday she hopes negotiations with part of the opposition “provide a space where all voices can be heard,” Reuters reported. Speaking at a military hospital in Caracas, she added that she hoped “those who called for sanctions and external aggression, feel some remorse and regret.” The BBC said Rodríguez had earlier called Machado’s return a “show,” and that state television ignored the convoy.
Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, is not part of the U.S.-backed talks between the Rodríguez government and other opposition groups, Reuters reported. Those talks, which continued this month, aim to remake the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Court before elections. No election date has been set. Vente Venezuela wants a vote in 2027 and for Machado to be allowed to run after she was barred from the last presidential race, according to Euronews. Our earlier coverage of the Venezuela reconciliation talks explains what the negotiators have agreed so far.
Oil at the center of US-Venezuela ties
Machado returns to a country whose relationship with Washington has changed sharply. Trump has repeatedly praised Rodríguez, calling her “wonderful” and “a terrific person,” the BBC reported. The administration recently signed an oil deal giving the United States a 100-year concession over about 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan crude, reached with a private company, North American Blue Energy Partners. Machado has criticized that deal, aiming her criticism at Caracas and the company’s leadership rather than at Trump.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but output is about one million barrels a day, far below the roughly three million it pumped decades ago, Euronews noted. Rubio’s role in setting U.S. policy toward Caracas is covered in our profile of Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
What comes next
The European Union welcomed Machado’s return and urged an inclusive dialogue “that leads to free and fair elections,” EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said. Venezuelan political analyst Benigno Alarcón told the BBC her return is “the most significant [political] event since 3rd January,” arguing that the opposition now has leadership on the ground rather than only in exile. A study by the think tanks Polis and Nexo, cited by the BBC, found Venezuela saw three times as many street protests in the first nine months of 2026 as in all of 2025. Whether Rodríguez agrees to meet Machado, and whether Vente Venezuela gets a seat in the talks, will shape how quickly the country moves toward a vote.
Sources
- Euronews: Machado seeks talks with Delcy Rodríguez after return from exile
- BBC: Machado returns from exile to a Venezuela reshaped by Trump
- Reuters (via Yahoo News): Venezuela’s acting president says dialogue should offer space for all voices
- AP: US told Venezuela’s government to allow in Machado
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