Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado returned to Venezuela and was greeted by thousands of enthusiastic supporters. “I’m here, I’m with you,” she said on social networks.
Machado has been in hiding since the 2024 presidential elections, in which Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner. In December, she fled Venezuela on a fishing boat to receive the Nobel Prize and has not returned to her homeland since then.
In January 2026, Maduro and his wife were captured by American special forces in the presidential palace and taken to the United States. However, the Donald Trump administration relied on the Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, to whom the responsibilities of head of state were transferred.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the return of the opposition leader is connected with negotiations on the future political structure of Venezuela. The new authorities have released hundreds of political prisoners, and many emigrants have returned to their homeland.
Note that US President Donald Trump was outraged that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Machado, and not to him. He explained the administration’s bet on Rodriguez by the fact that Machado does not have serious political weight. During a visit to the White House, the laureate presented the President with a Nobel medal.