Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado landed back in the country on Sunday after nearly a year in hiding and exile, a surprise homecoming that immediately scrambled the fragile political order Washington has backed since U.S. forces seized former president Nicolás Maduro in January. By Monday, her party said she was ready to sit down with interim president Delcy Rodríguez.

Machado, 59, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led Venezuela's opposition through years of repression, announced her return on social media with a short post — "I'm here. With you all" — and was soon shown in photos at a church plaza in Barquisimeto, in Lara state. She did not disclose how she traveled or re-entered the country. Her press team said the return followed at least seven unsuccessful attempts to get back into Venezuela since she slipped out of hiding late last year to collect her Nobel Prize in person.

Thousands turn out, government stays quiet

Supporters lined highways, toll plazas and city streets to see her, according to France 24's reporting on the homecoming, which came after demonstrators had rallied in Caracas and other cities just last week demanding her return and a path to elections. Neither the Venezuelan communications ministry nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment, and Rodríguez's government has not said whether or when any meeting with Machado would happen.

Machado's adviser, David Smolansky, told Reuters she intends to press Rodríguez's government for a firm date for "free and fair elections." Machado herself has argued that only a "serious, democratic government" can deliver the stability foreign investors are waiting for. Edmundo González, the opposition's 2024 presidential candidate who has lived in exile in Spain, confirmed her return and said he plans to join her in Venezuela soon.

"WE TRUST THAT THE VENEZUELAN AUTHORITIES AND ALL POLITICAL ACTORS WILL SEIZE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN AN INCLUSIVE, VENEZUELAN-LED DIALOGUE TOWARDS FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS," EU foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni said, welcoming her return.

President Trump, asked about the return on Sunday, said he had no advance knowledge of it. "I think she's a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say anything else?" he said, while insisting the United States would keep backing Rodríguez, who has opened Venezuelan oil fields to American energy firms since taking power.

A government born of Maduro's capture

Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice president, became interim leader after U.S. forces captured Maduro in a January raid and flew him to New York, where he has pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking charges. Trump has since said repeatedly it is too soon to hold elections, telling Fox News the U.S. now has "total control of Venezuela" and is "taking out millions of barrels of oil a week." Oil output has risen to roughly 1 million barrels a day under the new arrangement, still far below the 3 million barrels Venezuela pumped decades ago.

Machado's movement says a post-election crackdown under Maduro left 28 people dead and more than 2,400 arrested, including dozens of her own associates — grievances she is expected to raise directly with Rodríguez's government. A separate track of talks between a rival opposition faction and the interim government, aimed at reshaping Venezuela's top court and electoral council, has proceeded this month without Machado's movement at the table.

What happens next hinges on whether Rodríguez agrees to meet her and whether Washington tolerates a faster transition than it has signaled. Machado also plans visits to survivors of June's twin earthquakes, which killed more than 6,500 people, and to families of political prisoners — appearances likely to keep pressure on the interim government as it weighs how, and whether, to respond to her return.