The leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, has returned to Venezuela after almost a year outside the country, as Edmundo González, the former opposition presidential candidate, reported on social media on Sunday.
“Venezuela! I am very happy to announce that our leader, my dear María Corina, is already in Venezuelan territory,” he wrote.
Machado — who has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — posted early Sunday on her social networks: “I’m here. With all of you.”
Her return could strain relations with the US Trump administration, which she has tried to approach as an ally since before it ousted President Nicolás Maduro last January.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for interim President Delcy Rodríguez—Maduro’s former vice president—and has struck deals on oil production and other business initiatives by U.S. companies in the South American country. In September, Trump stated that it is still too early to consider holding democratic elections in Venezuela.
Trump’s reaction to Corina Machado’s return to Venezuela
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has expressed his hope that the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is safe, after her return to Venezuela, where she reappeared in a Catholic church in the state of Lara, in the northwest of the country. “She’s a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say anything else? And I hope she’s safe,” Trump told reporters in Washington.
In images released by her communications team, the opponent is seen greeting those attending the mass and other people in the town square. So far, no details have been released about how he returned to Venezuela or whether Washington played any role in his return.
