Venezuela’s Machado lauds Trump for ‘freedom’, urges 2027 elections

What the report says

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after more than 10 months in exile and used her first public remarks to praise US President Donald Trump’s administration, according to Al Jazeera. Speaking in Caracas on Thursday, she said US actions had opened a path toward “freedom” and argued that Venezuela should hold presidential elections in 2027.

Al Jazeera reported that Machado credited Trump, US officials and Secretary of State Marco Rubio with helping advance what she described as a democratic transition. She said she had come back to Venezuela to help “mobilise society,” after spending a year in hiding from President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The article also said she was escorted out of the country in December by US special forces veterans working with Grey Bull Rescue so she could travel to Oslo for the Nobel ceremony.

Her return follows Maduro’s abduction in January, after which Venezuela has been governed by former vice president Delcy Rodriguez, the report said. Machado was greeted by supporters in Caracas, while Rodriguez dismissed the welcome and later said elections would be held “with the world as witness,” without naming a date.

Machado also criticised a recent US oil arrangement involving Venezuela, saying it lacked the transparency Venezuelans expect. The deal, described by Al Jazeera as controversial, comes amid broader political uncertainty and renewed debate over Venezuela’s electoral timetable and democratic future.