María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela; Rubio ties safe return to U.S.-backed talks

As of 2:39 p.m. ET, Oct. 25, 2026

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Sunday she has returned to Venezuela after months outside the country, posting on X: “Estoy aquí. Con ustedes” (“I am here. With you”).

Edmundo González, a former presidential candidate aligned with Machado’s movement, confirmed her arrival in his own post and said he would soon join her. “¡Venezuela! Me emociona muchísimo anunciarles que nuestra líder, mi querida Maria Corina, está en territorio venezolano,” he wrote, adding that he would be with Venezuelans and with her “muy pronto.”

The Associated Press reported that Machado reappeared in Venezuela on Sunday after months in exile. Photos released by her Vente Venezuela press office and distributed by AP showed her greeting supporters and attending Mass at a church in Barquisimeto, in Lara state west of Caracas, AP said. AP reported she strode into a church in Lara to applause, then left headed toward Caracas with stops planned along the way. How she entered the country was not detailed in the wire material reviewed for this report.

Reuters similarly reported that Machado had returned after nearly a year outside the country and that her press team shared images from Lara state’s Plaza del Pueblo de Santa Rosa, where she appeared at a church. Reuters said neither the White House nor Venezuela’s communications ministry immediately responded to requests for comment on her return. No statement from Venezuelan government authorities reacting to Sunday’s return was found in the material reviewed for this report.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, posting Sunday afternoon on the official @SecRubio account, said the conditions allowing for Machado’s safe return “is the direct result of the U.S. supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile.” That characterization is Rubio’s claim; this report does not present it as established fact. Rubio also wrote that the United States “expects the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to continue to be respected” and that political actors should support the talks, which he called Venezuela’s best chance in thirty years to achieve a free and fair election and an enduring democracy.

What is not known

Machado has not publicly detailed her route of entry. A full Venezuelan government reaction to Sunday’s return was not available in the sources used here. Whether Rubio’s linkage of the return to U.S.-backed reconciliation talks is accepted by other parties is outside the scope of this short.