Maria Corina Machado, a longtime critic of Venezuela’s socialist regime, said she will work toward an ‘orderly and sustainable transition to democracy.’
Maria Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Prize winner from Venezuela, said Saturday that she wants to run in Venezuelan elections as a candidate, and that she is working on making those elections exemplary.
“It will be a process of coming together for the entire nation,” she said.
“I will be a candidate, but there may be others, of course. I would love to compete with everyone, with anyone who wants to be a candidate, of course.”
Machado made her remarks in a televised press conference while in Panama with many other Venezuelan opposition leaders. She has been living in exile since December 2025.
Machado was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 election and her Vente Venezuela party remains banned. She was replaced by opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, whom she backed in the election. Much of the international community recognize González as the rightful winner of that election.
U.S. President Donald Trump hasn’t indicated when Venezuela will have its next election. On May 12, Trump posted on Truth Social a meme of Venezuela draped in a U.S. flag with the headline, “51st State.”
Machado said in March that she planned to return to Venezuela as the country continues its political transition following the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Machado, a longtime critic of Venezuela’s socialist regime, said in a March video posted to X that she hopes to help prepare for what she called “a new and resounding electoral victory” and work toward an “orderly and sustainable transition to democracy.”
Machado rose to prominence as one of the leading figures in Venezuela’s opposition movement during the regimes of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and Maduro.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 for her efforts promoting democracy in Venezuela and has been living outside the country since traveling to Oslo, Norway, to receive the award. She later met with Trump at the White House and praised him for helping bring Maduro “before international justice” after the former Venezuelan leader was captured by U.S. forces in January.
Machado met with Trump at the White House on Jan. 15 and presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
By Tom Gantert
