The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has described this Monday as “good news” for Venezuela the return of opposition leader María Corina Machado, after her departure from the country in December 2025.
In an interview granted to Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the head of Spanish diplomacy has defended that Spain is “a sister people” and has wished that “everyone who wants to return” to Venezuela returns.
Request for the release of political prisoners and dialogue among Venezuelans
José Manuel Albares has also advocated for “the release of every last political prisoner from Venezuelan jails,” and for the country to “move forward steadily, autonomously, with genuinely Venezuelan solutions, through a broad dialogue among Venezuelans” towards elections “in which everyone can compete.”
Edmundo González confirms the return of the leader of Vente Venezuela
The former presidential candidate of the opposition in the last presidential elections, held on July 28, 2024, Edmundo González, has also confirmed the return of the leader of the Vente Venezuela party to the country.
, founder of Vente Venezuela, left Venezuela in December 2025 to attend Oslo and receive the Nobel Peace Prize, although she did not arrive in time and the award was collected by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa. Since then, the opposition leader has reiterated on several occasions that her goal is to return to Venezuelan territory.
Background of the return and political context
After the devastating earthquakes in June, María Corina Machado publicly raised her return to the country, although a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State stated in early July, in statements to Europa Press, that Washington did not consider a return opportune at that time, given that the objective of the Donald Trump Administration was “the progress” of its “response efforts” to the earthquakes.
The Government of Venezuela has approached positions with Washington following the U.S. military incursion on January 3, in which the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, was arrested, now being tried in New York. More than a hundred people died in the attack and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez took charge of power.