Rio de Janeiro, Oct 25.(dpa/GNA) – Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, MarĂa Corina Machado, has returned to her home country around 10 months after secretly leaving.
“I’m here. With you,” Machado wrote on X on Sunday. Fellow opposition politician Edmundo González also announced her return, writing on the platform: “Venezuela! I am overjoyed to announce to you that our leader, my dear Maria Corina, is on Venezuelan soil.” “Today is a very important day for Venezuelans. Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!”
The oil-rich South American country has been led by Delcy RodrĂguez, Maduro’s former vice president, since US forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a covert military raid in Caracas in January. Both are now in jail in New York.
The opposition regards RodrĂguez as part of the former authoritarian regime, although US President Donald Trump has praised his administration’s cooperation with her.
Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote democracy in Venezuela. Before leaving for Oslo in secret.
She had spent more than a year largely in hiding amid a crackdown on the opposition.
GNA