Nobel Peace Prize winner returns to Venezuela from exile, urgent for elections and criticising a controversial US oil cope with Caracas.
Printed On 30 Oct 2026
Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado has thanked US President Donald Trump’s administration for opening the “floodgate to freedom” by abducting President Nicolas Maduro in January.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Thursday additionally referred to as for elections to be held in Venezuela subsequent 12 months, in her first public remarks since coming back from greater than 10 months in exile.
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“Because of their imaginative and prescient, their braveness, and their motion on January 3, the floodgate to freedom has been opened,” Machado advised a information convention in Caracas, naming Trump, his administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio “has set out a sequence of occasions geared toward shifting towards a democratic transition that makes clear the holding of presidential elections in 2027”, she mentioned.
Machado has praised Trump earlier than, presenting the president together with her Nobel medal – a prize he feverishly coveted for himself in 2025.
A longtime activist, Machado fled Venezuela for Oslo in December to just accept the Nobel Peace Prize. On Thursday, she mentioned she had come dwelling to “mobilise society”. US particular forces veterans with an organisation referred to as Gray Bull Rescue helped Machado escape by boat after she spent a 12 months in hiding from Maduro’s regime.
Since Maduro’s abduction in January, the nation has been dominated by his former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
Machado was greeted by cheering supporters as she travelled in her motorcade after she returned to Venezuela on Sunday. Rodriguez voiced distaste for the fanfare.
“The present might have been averted – the airports are proper right here,” she mentioned on state tv.
When requested a few attainable assembly with Rodriguez, the opposition chief mentioned she had not acquired any message from her or from Washington.
Shortly earlier than Machado’s statements on Thursday, Rodriguez assured the nation that elections could be held in Venezuela “with the world as witness” however didn’t specify a date.
Her return comes simply weeks after a controversial US oil deal that can see Venezuela hand over 20 % of its huge oil reserves.
“This settlement doesn’t replicate the degrees of transparency that Venezuelan society needs,” Machado mentioned, criticising the deal.
