Opposition leader María Corina Machado arrived in Venezuela Sunday, challenging a government she has vowed to oust and that has forged close ties with the Trump administration. Though the U.S. has supported Machado, it also has worked closely with interim President Delcy Rodríguez on oil deals.
How will Machado stay safe in a country ruled by a government whose leaders revile her?
Officials in the Venezuelan government have made little secret of their hostility for Machado. But they also want democracy. The majority of respondents in the September Meganalisis poll believe elections are urgent and want to see the current government voted out of power. Machado’s solution is a presidential election, contending that only after a democratic government is in power will foreign companies make the large investments needed for Venezuela to rebuild its economy and lure back the millions of people who fled.
In August, Machado told The Wall Street Journal that she hoped to revive the nationwide movement that turned out voters en masse in 2024, when Maduro lost an election the U.S. said he had stolen. Her plan now calls for crisscrossing 23 states, going to even the smallest communities, to talk to Venezuelans and reboot her campaign—this time to press for new presidential elections in 2027. A nationwide DatinCorp poll of 1,200 potential voters in August found that 51% of respondents considered inflation, low wages and unemployment the country’s most urgent problems. Asked which step should come first in a transition, 35% chose free and fair elections, just a notch above those who prioritized rebuilding the economy.
In February, as Machado planned her return from Washington, Rodríguez warned that she would have to “answer to Venezuela” for backing the January raid that netted Maduro. “We’re waiting for her,” Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister, said in June. Machado can’t count on security services controlled by her opponents, so for now, she depends on private security, made up in part by former Venezuelan servicemen, said two people familiar with the matter. “Delcy Rodríguez represents chaos,” Machado told the Journal in August.
