# Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who pipped Donald Trump to win 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, returns home after a year in exile

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/venezuelan-opposition-leader-maria-corina-machado-who-pipped-donald-trump-to-win-2025-nobel-peace-prize-returns-home-after-a-year-in-exile/
- Published: 2026-10-25T18:22:08+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-25T20:23:17+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16237449/Venezuelan-opposition-leader-Maria-Corina-Machado-Donald-Trump-Nobel-Peace-Prize-returns-home-year-exile.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Americas, Government, Politics, World

## Key points

- María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after nearly a year abroad.
- Her return may complicate US-backed talks on a democratic transition.
- She has said she would run for president again if elections were held.

## Summary

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after nearly a year abroad, drawing cheers from supporters at a church in Barquisimeto. Her return could complicate relations with the US administration, which has backed talks on a democratic transition but reportedly asked her to delay coming home.

Machado, 59, won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to advance democracy and left Venezuela covertly to receive it. She was barred from running in 2024, after winning an opposition primary with more than 90 per cent of the vote, and went into hiding after that election, which opponents and many abroad said Nicolás Maduro had stolen. Machado has praised Donald Trump’s role in Maduro’s removal and given him her medal; it remains unclear how she returned or what she will do next, though she has said she would run again if elections were held.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.