Caracas — Venezuela's opposition leader, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado, was prevented from returning to the South American country from her exile in Panama, a source from her political party told AFP on Tuesday. Machado is considered a fugitive by the Venezuelan government, which accuses her of calling for military intervention against the country.
She has been unable to return to Venezuela since being covertly sneaked out of the country in December by a private U.S. rescue team to accept her Nobel Prize in Norway.
"During the last 24 hours, María Corina Machado has been denied entry into Venezuela three times," the politician's senior adviser David Smolansky said in a statement shared with CBS News' Margaret Brennan and other journalists early Wednesday morning. "She has attempted to enter the country by air and sea but has been turned away each time."
The opposition leader has made several failed attempts to return to her home country, including during the aftermath of the devastating June 24 double earthquakes.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado receives an anniversary T-shirt as she meets members of Vente Panama, an organization formed by Venezuelans living abroad to support Machado's "Vente Venezuela" political movement, at the Vente Panama headquarters in Panama City, Panama, May 24, 2026.
Enea Lebrun/REUTERS
The latest instances come as Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez met with President Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Venezuela suffered a wave of repression after former President Nicolas Maduro's widely disputed claim to have won re-election in July 2024. The crackdown on opposition has eased since the United States seized Maduro in a lightning raid on the capital Caracas in January.
Colombian broadcaster NTN24 and Spanish newspaper ABC reported that Machado's latest attempt to return to Venezuela was thwarted by a combination of air travel restrictions, last-minute cancellations and mechanical failures.
Machado was not invited to U.S.-backed transition talks that are underway between the interim Venezuelan government and selected parts of the opposition, although she has said she would not interfere in the process.
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