Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado says she is preparing to return from exile and press for presidential elections as President Donald Trump’s administration strengthens its working relationship with interim President Delcy Rodríguez and expands U.S. economic interests in Venezuela.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is preparing to return home after nine months in exile, planning a nationwide political campaign for new presidential elections even as the Trump administration increasingly works with interim President Delcy Rodríguez on Venezuela’s political and economic transition.

“The moment to return has arrived,” Machado told The Wall Street Journal in an interview from Panama City published Saturday.

“I cannot lead the process from abroad,” she said.

Machado’s return would place one of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders back inside the country at a time when Washington has developed a close relationship with Rodríguez, who assumed power after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured in a U.S. military operation in January. Trump is scheduled to encounter Rodríguez in New York on Tuesday during a reception on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, according to U.S. officials.

Since leaving Venezuela, Machado has spent months rebuilding plans for the political organization that challenged Maduro’s government during the 2024 election period.

Her strategy calls for quickly pressing for another presidential election, updating voter rolls and organizing thousands of citizen assemblies across the country. Her team is also identifying people who could assume government and institutional positions during a future political transition.

Machado intends to run if a new presidential contest is held.

Her planned campaign would take her well beyond Caracas and into communities throughout Venezuela.

“I see myself traveling all across the country, all the way to the tiny communities, sitting down, listening to mothers, to workers, to farmers, to businessmen, to drivers, to students, to teachers, to doctors, everybody,” Machado said.

She has also been encouraging foreign companies to prepare for opportunities in Venezuela rather than waiting for the country’s political situation to be fully resolved.

“I’ve told all of them, go to Venezuela,” Machado said. “I’m not telling them to wait.”

That message comes as Venezuela’s energy sector is already attracting renewed international interest. Rodríguez signed a memorandum of understanding with TotalEnergies on Sept. 19, while other international energy companies have been examining potential investments as Venezuela seeks to restore oil production and attract foreign capital.

Machado’s return, however, could create new tension with the government she hopes eventually to replace.

Rodríguez has said Machado would have to “answer to Venezuela” because of her support for the U.S. military operation against Maduro.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello issued a separate warning in June.

“We’re waiting for her,” Cabello said, adding, “but she better come quickly.”

Machado maintains that returning would contribute to an orderly political transition rather than destabilize the country.

“My presence in Venezuela is not a challenge,” she said.

“Part of my effort has been to explain that it is exactly the opposite. It’s a contribution to the process.”

Some U.S. officials have expressed concerns about whether Machado’s return could disrupt the political arrangement that emerged following Maduro’s removal, according to the Journal. Washington has increasingly treated Rodríguez as its primary governing counterpart while seeking stability, oil-sector cooperation and progress toward an eventual political transition.

Machado has also been excluded from some U.S.-backed negotiations intended to establish a path toward future elections.

That relationship between Washington and Caracas has strengthened considerably during 2026.

Trump initially questioned whether Machado possessed enough domestic “support” and “respect” to govern Venezuela after Maduro’s removal. His administration instead began working extensively with Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, on energy, economic and security matters.

Trump has nevertheless acknowledged Machado’s popularity.

During a March telephone call placed on speaker at a private dinner in Florida, Trump told her, “Everyone loves you here,” according to video reviewed by the Journal.

The political distance between Machado and the interim government has since widened.

“Delcy Rodriguez represents chaos,” Machado said. “Everything she has done, she has done by coercion.”

Rodríguez’s government, Machado added, is “absolutely incompetent, incapable of running even a corner store.”

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and Rodríguez’s office did not respond to requests for comment from the Journal.

Washington’s relationship with the interim government now extends far beyond diplomatic recognition.

Trump announced an oil agreement in August under which the U.S. government obtained majority control and significant governance rights involving a private Venezuelan oil company holding 100-year concessions to 17 fields containing approximately 65 billion barrels of proven reserves.

The White House has presented the arrangement as part of a broader plan involving stabilization, economic recovery and a later democratic transition.

The agreement has also given Washington a major direct stake in Venezuela’s post-Maduro economic structure while the administration continues working with Rodríguez.

The two governments are involved in other negotiations as well. Venezuelan authorities and an opposition faction have been discussing a possible arrangement to transfer approximately $4 billion in Venezuelan gold held by the Bank of England to the United States, where its use would be subject to U.S. oversight.

Trump’s Venezuela policy is part of a broader effort to increase U.S. influence throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The administration has formally described its regional strategy as a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, emphasizing U.S. leadership in the hemisphere, restrictions on outside strategic influence, cooperation against criminal organizations and greater American access to strategically important locations.

The White House has pointed to arrangements involving the Panama Canal, regional trade agreements, counternarcotics operations and efforts to limit strategic influence by China and other outside powers as elements of that policy.

Pentagon and administration officials have promoted similar objectives throughout Central and South America, combining military and counternarcotics cooperation with economic agreements and pressure against foreign control of strategic infrastructure.

For Machado, however, the immediate question is Venezuela’s political timetable.

Her movement wants elections sooner than the transition process currently envisioned by Washington and Caracas appears likely to provide. The Trump administration has emphasized stability and economic reconstruction while continuing to work with Rodríguez, whose government remains in power months after Maduro’s capture.

Machado says events inside Venezuela have made waiting increasingly difficult.

Deadly earthquakes in June exposed shortcomings in the government response and intensified her determination to return, according to the Journal. An earlier attempt to reenter Venezuela during the earthquake emergency was derailed after the country’s government blocked her return.

“An abyss opened in our country,” Machado said. “For me, something broke definitively, and it accelerated everything.”

Her extended absence has nevertheless been difficult.

“I have questioned myself many times,” Machado said. “Obviously, I would have wanted to return a long time ago, and everyone knows it.”

Returning would carry both political and personal risks.

Rodríguez remains in control of the government apparatus, and officials allied with the interim administration have openly warned Machado about coming back. At the same time, Washington’s expanding cooperation with Rodríguez has left Machado without the central role in the transition that she and her supporters had once anticipated.

Machado argues that she can contribute to the transition by rebuilding a nationwide opposition organization, preparing potential government personnel, encouraging investment and organizing citizens ahead of elections.

Washington, meanwhile, continues building economic and diplomatic ties with the existing interim government while publicly maintaining that Venezuela is moving through a longer process of stabilization and eventual democratic transition.

Those competing timelines are now converging.

Machado says she intends to return to Venezuela and campaign directly among its voters. Rodríguez remains in office with growing U.S. engagement. And Trump’s administration is simultaneously seeking to preserve political stability, secure strategic and energy interests and shape the country’s post-Maduro future.

The next test will be whether Machado can carry out her planned return — and what role Washington chooses to play as her push for elections intersects with the transition it has been negotiating with Rodríguez.

Original article