{"id":1667206,"date":"2026-03-03T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1667206"},"modified":"2026-03-03T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:05:00","slug":"opposition-leader-maria-corina-machado-says-she-will-return-to-venezuela-in-coming-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/opposition-leader-maria-corina-machado-says-she-will-return-to-venezuela-in-coming-weeks\/1667206\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado Says She Will Return To Venezuela In Coming Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado Says She Will Return To Venezuela In Coming Weeks<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mar\u00eda Corina Machado said on March 1 that she will return to her country in the coming weeks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado during an interview with AFP in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 25, 2024. Federico Parra\/AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Machado, 58, did not set a date for her return, but she said in a video posted to X that one of the objectives is to prepare for \u201ca new and resounding electoral victory.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI will return to Venezuela in a few weeks. I want to do so, as do hundreds and thousands of Venezuelan exiles around the world,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will arrive to embrace one another, to work together to guarantee an orderly and sustainable transition to democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then-Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, were captured<\/a> in a U.S. military operation on Jan. 3 and taken to the United States<\/strong>, where the pair face drug trafficking-related charges. Both have denied the charges.<\/p>\n

Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, who has been the interim leader of Venezuela since, said that Machado, who is under investigation in her home country, should have to \u201canswer to Venezuela\u201d for her support of U.S. military action against Caracas.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Maduro\u2019s capture, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said<\/a> Venezuela must go through phases of stabilization, economic recovery, and then, finally, a transition of power.<\/p>\n

Rubio has not indicated that elections could be held in the short term.<\/p>\n

Nobel Prize Winner<\/h2>\n

In her video, Machado praised U.S. President Donald Trump for his \u201cvision and courage,\u201d having \u201cbrought Nicol\u00e1s Maduro before international justice\u2014international justice that, finally, on Jan. 3, served the people and not the tyrants, serving the sovereignty expressed through the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to thank the people of the United States, their government, their members of Congress, their judges, and their military men and women who risked their lives for the freedom of Venezuela and for the national security of their country and the security of all the Americas,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 10, 2025, Machado was awarded<\/a> the Nobel Peace Prize for her work fighting for democracy in Venezuela. She left Venezuela in December 2025 for Oslo, Norway, to receive the award and is currently in the United States.<\/p>\n

She later gave<\/a> her medal to Trump when she met with the U.S. president at the White House on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump and Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado in the Oval Office on Jan. 15, 2026. Daniel Torok\/The White House\/Reuters<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Machado was an opposition presidential candidate but was disqualified from running against Maduro in the 2024 election. He was replaced by Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez.<\/p>\n

After Maduro claimed victory, protests erupted, which triggered widespread repression by the state. The opposition claimed that it had evidence that Gonz\u00e1lez was the rightful winner. Gonz\u00e1lez was deemed the victor by the United States.<\/p>\n

Maduro and his wife are being held in U.S. custody.<\/strong> In their first court appearance in New York City on Jan. 5, they were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess those items.<\/p>\n

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 03\/02\/2026 – 20:05<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/opposition-leader-maria-corina-machado-says-she-will-return-venezuela-coming-weeks<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado Says She Will Return To Venezuela In Coming Weeks Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Venezuelan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1667207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667232,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667206\/revisions\/1667232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}