María Corina Machado Calls for 2027 Elections Upon Return to Venezuela

María Corina Machado stepped back onto Venezuelan soil Thursday and used a news conference in Caracas to demand that national elections be held next year.

The transition is irreversible, organised, pacific, she declared, standing before a banner that read “Let Us Be Free.”

Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said she expects voting to take place in 2027, though she did not provide a precise timetable.

She thanked the Trump administration for “opening the floodgate to freedom” after the United States seized former President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.

On the same day, interim president Delcy Rodríguez announced that elections will be held and that her government will oversee a “transition of this magnitude,” but she did not set a specific date.

Machado dismissed Rodríguez’s statement as illogical, noting the lack of a concrete schedule.

Her return follows a series of failed attempts to re‑enter the country, including a night‑time departure by speedboat to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

After the U.S. action against Maduro, the Trump administration backed Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president and later signed an oil agreement granting favourable terms to the United States.

Machado said she heard thousands of supporters chant “freedom” along her route into the capital.

“I come to carry out a task and complete a mandate,” she said.

She confirmed she has not received an invitation from Rodríguez and will not take part personally in election negotiations, but she wishes the talks well in order to reform the electoral body so that every Venezuelan, at home or abroad, can vote.

While Machado has previously indicated she would run for president again if an election is called, she did not outline her next steps.

Her return marks a significant moment for the opposition as the country edges toward a promised electoral process.