The President of the United States, Donald Trump, reacted cautiously and affectionately this Sunday to the return of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado to Venezuela, where she publicly reappeared for the first time in nearly ten months during a mass in the state of Lara.
"It’s a very pleasant woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say otherwise? And I hope she is safe," Trump told reporters as he left the White House, according to reported by the EFE agency.
The leader did not provide details about the circumstances of the opposition member's return and simply added: "Things are going very well for us in Venezuela."
Machado made her first public appearance at the Sanctuary of the Divine Shepherdess in Santa Rosa, where supporters of her party, Vente Venezuela, welcomed her with hugs and chants of support.
Machado herself confirmed her return with a brief message on the social network X: "I am here. With you."
From Madrid, the opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia —exiled in Spain since September 2024— celebrated the news with an emotional message: "I am very excited to announce that our leader, my dear María Corina, is on Venezuelan soil."
González also announced that he himself will return "very soon" to Venezuela, with the promise that the country will progress "truly towards freedom."
Machado's return marks the end of an absence that lasted nearly ten months and was characterized by multiple failed attempts to return to the country.
The opposition leader secretly left Venezuela between the night of December 8 and the early morning of December 9, 2025, disguised, traveling by land to the coast and then by boat to Curacao, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 in Oslo on December 11 of that year.
Since then, she tried to return at least seven times without success, including three attempts on September 22, 2026, from Panama City.
The connection between Machado and Trump deepened on January 15, 2026, when the opposition leader symbolically presented her Nobel medal to the U.S. president at the White House, a gesture that the Norwegian Committee clarified did not transfer ownership of the award.
The return comes at a time of profound political transformation in Venezuela: following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces at the beginning of the year, the acting president Delcy Rodríguez took power and supported a controversial oil deal with Washington whereby the Pentagon would acquire a 35% stake in the matrix of NABEP, a company with exploitation rights over 17 Venezuelan oil fields.
According to an investigation by ABC, the return was made possible thanks to a diplomatic operation involving several countries, which faced no opposition from the White House. This situation has been deemed crucial by the media that followed the case for the return to materialize.
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