Venezuela, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Maria Corina Machado announced Saturday that she is considering running for president again and plans to return to her home country before the end of 2026.
Machado’s remarks, made during a meeting in Panama with several other Venezuelan opposition leaders, come more than four months after the White House’s stunning decision to sideline her and instead work with a loyalist of Venezuela’s ruling party following the U.S. military’s capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado has been in exile since December, when she emerged from 11 months of hiding somewhere in Venezuela and traveled to Norway where she received the Nobel Prize.
She told reporters in Panama City that she and other assembled opposition leaders remained committed to a democratic transition “through free and fair presidential elections, where all Venezuelans inside and outside the country vote.”
It remains to be seen when Venezuela will hold a presidential election.
U.S. President Donald Trump and top administration officials praised Maduro’s successor, interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who opened Venezuela’s oil industry to U.S. investment at a time of soaring oil prices linked to the war in Iran.
The Trump administration also put a damper on discussions about holding elections, which are required by Venezuela’s constitution within 30 days of the president’s permanent unavailability.
An election under democratic conditions would require between seven and nine months of planning, Machado said. Necessary changes include appointing neutral electoral authorities, updating voter lists and allowing opposition candidates to run in elections without government interference.
Machado has emerged as Maduro’s strongest opponent in recent years, but her government barred her from running in the 2024 presidential elections, leading her to choose retired Ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to represent her in the vote.
Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner just hours after polls closed, but Machado’s well-organized campaign assembled evidence showing that González had beaten Maduro by a margin of more than 2 to 1.
On Saturday, Machado told reporters she would run against any other presidential candidate in “a clean election.”
“I will be a candidate, but there may be others, of course,” she said. “I would love to compete with everyone, with everyone who wants to be a candidate.”