Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she expects a way out of her country’s political crisis “in the coming weeks”, while insisting that Venezuelans inside and outside the country must have a role in any return to electoral politics. Speaking at the International Virtual Forum “Where Is Democracy Going and Where Is It Headed?”, Machado said she would return to Venezuela “very soon” and urged supporters abroad to raise pressure for an electoral process in which citizens living overseas would be able to vote.
“Trust the people of Venezuela,” Machado said during the forum, organised by Liderazgo Democrático, the Universidad del Alba, the Pontificia Universitá Antonianum and the Prisa group, publisher of EL PAÍS, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organisation of American States. The virtual event brought together Machado with figures including Nicaraguan writer and former vice-president Sergio Ramírez, former OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza and Fernando Carrillo, global vice-president of Prisa.
Machado linked Venezuela’s political struggle to the experiences of Nicaragua and Cuba, arguing that warnings about Venezuela had not been heeded in the past. “The threat that we warned about regarding Venezuela was not listened to,” she said. She also pointed to the country’s natural-resource wealth as a factor in the struggle for control of its institutions and resources. “The high level of resources that our country has was a great attraction for actors who wanted to take control and, effectively, succeeded in doing so over our institutions and our resources,” she said.
Without naming the United States, Machado made the remarks as Washington has reached an agreement with the government of Delcy Rodríguez concerning Venezuelan crude oil. She also referred to the events of 2 January, which the source describes as the date when Nicolás Maduro was abducted in Caracas by US special forces. “On 2 January, it was unthinkable that Venezuela would begin to travel this path towards democracy. I thank the US for that, but now it is our part,” Machado said.
For Machado, a political opening would have consequences well beyond the country’s current population. She predicted the possible mass return of Venezuelans who have left the country, referring to “nine million people who were used by Chavismo as elements of pressure in multiple countries in our region”. “Imagine that millions of citizens from all parts of the world will decide to return; hope is in the people,” she said.
The prospect of returning home was also central to Ramírez’s contribution to the discussion. Now living in exile in Spain after Daniel Ortega’s regime expelled him from Nicaragua and stripped him of his Nicaraguan nationality in 2023, the writer said exile can make the prospect of returning increasingly uncertain. “When you live in exile, you begin to have doubts about whether there will be a return to your homeland,” Ramírez said.
He connected his own experience to Venezuela and warned that removing an authoritarian leader would not, by itself, necessarily produce the political conditions required for a genuine return. “I see myself in the mirror of Venezuela. If the solution is that they remove the tyrant but leave the structures of tyranny in power, that protectorate would not be the place where I would return. I would do so to a country where true democracy and national sovereignty prevail,” Ramírez said.
The discussion took place amid a series of attempts by Machado to return to Venezuela. On Tuesday 22 September, the same day that Delcy Rodríguez met Donald Trump in New York, Machado attempted to reach Venezuela for the third time within 24 hours. According to the source, the revelation disrupted the attention surrounding Rodríguez’s meeting with the US president.
Machado, who is living in exile in Panama, made three attempts that day, each of which was aborted for different reasons. The source states that few question whether Machado could already be in Caracas if Washington wanted her there. Her efforts to return have extended beyond that episode: over a period of three months, she has attempted to enter Venezuela in as many as seven different ways by land, sea and air.
The most recent previously known attempt came after the double earthquake that struck La Guaira on 24 June, but US authorities prevented that effort. Machado has now reiterated her intention to return. “I am going to return very soon,” she said on Saturday.
