María Corina Machado Returns to Venezuela to Continue the Fight for Democracy
Democratic Spaces | October 25, 2026.
María Corina Machado Returns to Venezuela to Continue the Fight for Democracy
María Corina Machado made a surprise appearance at the Shrine of the Divina Pastora in Santa Rosa, Barquisimeto, Venezuela. October 25, 2026. Photo: Vente Venezuela/Diario las Américas
María Corina Machado, Venezuela's pro-democracy leader, head of the Vente Venezuela movement, and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has returned to her homeland after at least seven unsuccessful attempts.
Her struggle for democracy spans more than two decades. On January 13, 2012, she famously confronted President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela's National Assembly, challenging him to a debate and declaring that his government's expropriations amounted to theft: “Expropiar es robar.”
Having stood up to Chávez, Nicolás Maduro, and now Delcy Rodríguez's government, Machado has played a pivotal role in uniting Venezuela's democratic opposition. Her leadership helped secure Edmundo González Urrutia's victory in the July 28, 2024 presidential election, while the opposition's collection and publication of official polling-station tally sheets provided compelling, independently verified evidence of that victory and exposed the government's fraudulent claims.
Nearly eight million Venezuelans have left their homeland, while thousands have suffered political imprisonment and repression. The human cost of authoritarian rule has been devastating.
Democratic Spaces stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan people in their struggle for freedom, democracy, and justice.
Full coverage of Machado’s return in Diario las Américas