Machado Blocked Again From Returning to Venezuela
Machado's international relations coordinator, Pedro Urruchurtu, confirmed on X that she endured three failed return attempts from Panama in under 24 hours, by both sea and air, after aviation authorities in nearby transit hubs — including Aruba and Curaçao — refused landing clearance for her flights.
"Maria Corina is being prevented from returning to Venezuela. In the last few hours, there have been three unsuccessful attempts—by sea and air—from Panama," the post said, adding: "That makes seven attempts—yes, seven—in recent weeks. They won't let her return to her own country."
Speaking in Manhattan on Tuesday, Machado's daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the 2026 Concordia Leadership Award on her mother's behalf at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, saying Machado is working "day and night" to re-enter Venezuela despite an intensely restrictive political climate.
Trump-Rodríguez Meeting Held Less Than a Kilometer Away
At almost the same moment, less than a kilometer away at the Lotte New York Palace, Rodríguez met with US President Donald Trump. Addressing the General Assembly, Trump spotlighted his administration's operational cooperation with Rodríguez's interim government following the US capture of former President Nicolás Maduro in January, and touted a newly brokered energy framework under which the US and Venezuela jointly control "more than 60%" of global oil reserves.
Machado has previously rejected that energy pact, arguing that long-term resource concessions cannot be signed off by an unconstitutional government. "The wealth of our land does not belong to an illegitimate regime; it belongs to the Venezuelan people," she said in a video message released earlier this month.
Years in Exile Since Fleeing by Sea
Machado secretly left Venezuela by sea for Curaçao in December 2025 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, and has remained outside the country since — through Maduro's removal and two major earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela. Her efforts to return began in late June, after those quakes, but the US State Department has advised against her immediate re-entry, citing security risks.
Despite ongoing state-sanctioned transition talks, the interim administration led by Rodríguez — a former vice president whose US sanctions have since been lifted — continues to enforce the entry bans first imposed under Maduro, leaving the opposition's central figure locked out of her own country.
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