She spent eleven months hiding somewhere inside Venezuela, slipped out of the country in December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo — which she then dedicated to Donald Trump — and has since been working from a modest office in Washington, D.C., building what she calls an "unstoppable" coalition for democratic transition. Now, María Corina Machado has formally announced she will return to Venezuela before the end of 2026, that she will run for president again, and that the only acceptable outcome for her country is a free and fair election in which all Venezuelans — including the more than 7 million who have fled abroad — get to vote.
The announcement, made at a press conference in Panama City on May 23, was the most significant political statement Machado has made since Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces on January 3. It was also, in many ways, a declaration of independence from the Trump administration's timeline — which has notably not committed to elections happening anytime soon.
