The political transition conversations in Venezuela backed by the United States began this Saturday without the presence of María Corina Machado, the country's most recognized opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
According to the Reuters agency, the opposition delegation at the dialogue table is led by Dinorah Figuera, president of the National Assembly of 2015, the last democratically elected legislative body in Venezuela, recognized by Washington as the legitimate representation of the opposition.
The chavista regime, for its part, is represented by Jorge Rodríguez, brother of the acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
According to three sources cited by Reuters, Machado was not invited to the delegation because she is not a member of the 2015 National Assembly, the formal channel that Washington chose for facilitating the negotiation.
Those same sources indicated that the opposition leader was not aware that the talks would begin until mid-June.
Machado has been outside Venezuela since December 2025, when he traveled to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and has reported that the government of Delcy Rodríguez has closed the commercial airspace to prevent his return.
On July 26th, Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia issued a joint statement in which they expressed conditional support for the process, clarifying that they did not participate in its "design, construction, and operation."
Both leaders set conditions to assess the dialogue: the restoration of democratic institutions, the release of all political prisoners, guarantees for all political actors, a presidential electoral timeline, and full respect for popular sovereignty.
In that statement, Machado and González asserted that they would not be an "obstacle to any initiative that produces real progress," but they demanded that Figuera and Rodríguez inform the country about "their objectives, their methods, and their timeline."
On Tuesday, July 28, in a video projected during a rally of her party Vente Venezuela in Caracas —the first organized in the capital in 2026—, Machado reiterated her stance with a direct message: "Rise up, Venezuela. The transition is coming, and it is with the people, for the people, and with our own hands."
The negotiating process is directly preceded by a meeting held on June 18 at the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas between Figuera and Jorge Rodríguez, marking the first significant contact between the government and the opposition in nearly three years.
The dialogue was temporarily interrupted by the devastating earthquakes of June 24—of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5—that left more than 5,500 dead and tens of thousands of people homeless.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on July 20 the formal start of the process and described the agreement as a "very significant proposal," assuring that Washington will participate "very actively."
The roadmap includes a technical and political parity table for institutional reforms, including the renewal of the National Electoral Council and the reconfiguration of the Supreme Court of Justice.
President Donald Trump, however, stated on July 24 that Venezuela "is not really ready" for elections, which directly contrasts with Machado's demand for a presidential election timeline as a condition for supporting the process.
Figuera, who returned to Venezuela after eight years of exile in Spain at the invitation of the State Department, acknowledged that Machado is "very important in this process," although her absence from the table creates a visible rift in the opposition bloc from the outset.
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