Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after more than 10 months in exile, in a surprise homecoming that could reshape the country's political transition. Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, announced her return on social media on Sunday, 25 October, writing in Spanish: "I am here. With you."

Church appearance in Barquisimeto

She gave no details of how she entered the country, but within hours videos on social media showed her at the church of Santa Rosa in Barquisimeto, in the western state of Lara, where her party said she had gone to give thanks to the Divina Pastora, one of Venezuela's most revered images of the Virgin Mary. Crowds pressed in around her, chanting her name. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who ran in Machado's place in the 2024 presidential election and whom the opposition and several countries including the United States recognised as its winner, confirmed her return and said he would join her soon.

Washington reaction

President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday: "I hope she's safe. She's a very nice woman." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said her safe return was "the direct result of the US-supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile". Machado has publicly pressed the authorities to set a date for Venezuela's next election, while US officials have said they want elections to take place but have not given an exact timeline.