World

Nobel laureate Machado returns to Venezuela after ten months of exile

Arrives in Barquisimeto church as US-backed interim government holds fire, Trump says he knows nothing about it

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Upon her return after almost a year in exile, María Corina Machado attended mass in Barquisimeto. Photograph: Vente Venezuela Press/Reuters Upon her return after almost a year in exile, María Corina Machado attended mass in Barquisimeto. Photograph: Vente Venezuela Press/Reuters theguardian.com
Machado at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess in Barquisimeto. Photograph: Jose Miguel Alarcon/EPA Machado at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess in Barquisimeto. Photograph: Jose Miguel Alarcon/EPA theguardian.com
Machado is surrounded by supporters in Barquisimeto on Sunday. Photograph: Jesus Hernandez/AP Machado is surrounded by supporters in Barquisimeto on Sunday. Photograph: Jesus Hernandez/AP theguardian.com

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who left the country last December to receive the Nobel peace prize, announced her return on Sunday with a three-word post on X: "I'm here. With you." Footage on social media placed her at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess church in Barquisimeto, capital of Lara state some 220 miles west of Caracas, surrounded by supporters shouting "Freedom!" It was not immediately clear how she got in; she had made more than half a dozen failed attempts in recent months.

The timing is not hers alone. The Trump administration had reportedly opposed her return, believing her presence would complicate its relationship with interim president Delcy Rodríguez — Machado's political arch-rival, who now governs a country widely seen as a US protectorate after American forces abducted Nicolás Maduro in January. Rubio claimed credit for her safe arrival as "the direct result" of US-supported reconciliation talks that have freed political prisoners and allowed opposition figures home from exile. Machado, who gave Trump her 2025 Nobel medal after praising the operation that removed Maduro, is the acceptable face of a campaign that was military before it was political. Trump's own comment was a shrug: "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?"

The regime's decision not to touch her on arrival is itself the result: Caracas has calculated that arresting the laureate costs more than tolerating her. From Barquisimeto she set off east through Yaracuy towards Caracas in a convoy, reaching out of a sunroof towards the crowds. Her ally Edmundo González, still in exile, says he will follow.