Accounts differ on when she left. Most say she departed in late 2025 to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, and one puts her exit in January 2026. She had tried to come back at least seven times and was blocked each time. A late-June attempt failed when the government closed its airspace, and three attempts in late September were denied while Delcy Rodríguez was in New York for the UN General Assembly.

Machado returns to a country transformed since January, when a US military operation removed Nicolás Maduro from power and he was flown to New York to face criminal charges. He has pleaded not guilty. Dinorah Figuera, a lawmaker elected in 2015 to the last legislature the US recognized, and described as the lead opposition negotiator, calls the operation an arrest. Others call it an abduction. Rodríguez, Maduro's former deputy, is acting president and has led the country since, in an arrangement some reports describe as US supervision. She has released hundreds of political prisoners, granted the US access to Venezuelan oil and signed energy agreements with foreign companies. She has promised new elections but has set no date.

Machado and Vente Venezuela have been left out of the talks between the government and other opposition groups. Those talks aim to remake the electoral council and the top court, both staffed by ruling party loyalists who backed Maduro in the disputed 2024 presidential election, and they envision a regional election before a presidential one. Machado has called for a presidential election in 2027 and for the lifting of her political disqualification. She won more than 90 percent of the vote in an independent opposition primary in 2023 and was then barred from running by the Maduro government, which cited allegations of fraud and tax violations that she denies.

Marco Rubio said her return was "the direct result of the US-supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile." Figuera told Breitbart News the negotiations succeeded largely because Trump used the military against Maduro. One report says the Trump administration had opposed her return, believing it would complicate relations with Rodríguez. Another says the return depended on administration approval, which appears to have been given. Washington has said Machado has every right to be in Venezuela. Her spokesperson David Smolansky called the return "a major step toward a democratic transition" and thanked Trump and the US government. Edmundo González, the opposition candidate in 2024, said he will soon join her.

President Donald Trump has been less effusive. In January he called her a "very nice woman" but said she "does not have the support or the respect within the country" to lead it. This week he said he hopes she is safe and that the US is "doing very well in Venezuela." Machado has given Trump her Nobel medal, though the Nobel committee has said the prize "cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others." In August she questioned Trump's oil agreement, which gives the US majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, and called the Venezuelan government an "illegitimate regime."

Phil Gunson of the International Crisis Group said the reception will reinforce a tendency to demand instant results. Oswaldo Ramirez of ORC Consultores said her role is tied to how she reads US signals, and Ricardo Rios of Poder y Estrategia expects her to push for electoral guarantees and a presidential election as soon as possible. On Monday the European Union said authorities and all political actors should advance "an inclusive, Venezuelan-led dialogue towards free and fair elections."