María Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Prize 2025 and the leading opposition figure in Venezuela, attempted to return to her country from Panama City on three separate occasions on September 22, failing each time, as confirmed by her team to the agency EFE.
With these three new failed attempts, the total number of times Machado has tried to return to Venezuela rises to "at least seven," according to his collaborators.
The journalist David Alandete from ABC was a direct witness to the ordeal—internally dubbed “Operation Ithaca”—and documented the three failed attempts within less than 24 hours.
“He has been prevented from flying from Panama. He remains there unable to leave,” reported the team of the former deputy.
Three attempts in one day
The first was by sea: a small vessel was to cross the Panama Canal and sail for several days through the Caribbean to Venezuela.
The departure procedures were complete and the passengers' documentation submitted — Alandete himself was going to travel on board — when the company announced a malfunction in the engine just a few hours before departure.
Machado's team found the failure "suspicious": the company did not offer any alternative even though there were other boats available in the same marina.
“One might think there was some kind of pressure”, Alandete noted.
The second attempt was a private flight to Aruba that did not receive takeoff authorization due to administrative objections regarding the nature of the flight.
Aruba finally announced that it would not allow landing.
The third attempt targeted Curaçao and Bonaire, with the same result.
The journalist Idania Chirinos, from NTN24, a special correspondent in Panama City, summarized the situation with a powerful statement:
"The Nobel Peace Prize winner is imprisoned in Panama. María Corina Machado is not in Venezuela not because she doesn't want to be. She is not there because they won't let her arrive."
Complete chronology: Seven attempts by land, sea, and air
The reconstruction of the seven failed travel attempts is set between the end of June and September.
The first incident occurred on June 26: a private flight from Manassas, Virginia, to Curaçao that returned to Virginia after the pilot received instructions related to a communication from the United States.
Two days later, Machado purchased a ticket with Copa Airlines from Panama to Caracas, but the airline received a warning from the Venezuelan government about potential consequences for its operating permits. María Corina was unable to board.
There was also an attempt via land route—whose transit country has not been disclosed to preserve the possibility of using it in the future—and a fourth option through an undisclosed route that also did not succeed.
The fifth attempt was the maritime plan of September 21, which was also canceled due to a engine malfunction.
“Returning to Venezuela has proven, so far, more difficult than leaving it”, wrote ABC.
"Between June and September, there was no passive waiting. Alternatives by air, land, and sea were successively prepared. Simply stating that one can return whenever they want does not capture the practical complexity we have documented," added the cited source.
Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli, international relations advisor to María Corina Machado, echoed on social media the summary of failed trips documented by ABC.
“All attempts have been blocked, denying the leader of all Venezuelans the right to return to her own country,” she declared on X.
The contrast of September 22nd
While Machado accumulates failures in Panama, the acting president of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez —accused of crimes against humanity— met with President Trump on September 22 in New York, on the sidelines of the 81st General Assembly of the UN.
The image was widely noted: the Nobel Prize winner stranded in Panama while Rodríguez shook hands with Guterres and sat down with the U.S. president.
The eventual return of Machado occurs in a context of intense political rivalry with Rodríguez's government: a survey by Meganálisis attributes her more than 80% of the votes in a hypothetical electoral confrontation with Rodríguez. However, the blockade does not solely come from Caracas.
At the end of August, Trump signed a controversial oil agreement with Rodríguez's government that grants the company NABEP rights over 17 fields with estimated reserves of 65 billion barrels.
Sectors of the White House fear that Machado's return could destabilize that agreement.
The contradictory signals from Washington regarding Machado's return
The Undersecretary Cartwright Weiland stated before Congress on July 15: "She is a Venezuelan citizen and has the right to return to her country."
However, the White House reportedly requested Machado to visit Washington before returning, a request that the opposition leader did not comply with.
Officials from the Trump administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, described his insistence as “grotesque political opportunism.”
Machado does not hide his determination.
“It’s time to return. I cannot lead a process from the outside while our people are suffering,” he declared to the Wall Street Journal days before the three new failed attempts.
“She has said that she wants to enter, that she will enter by any means,” Alandete summarized. “We still need to see what other options may be available to her.”
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