Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a two-sided message after María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela: Delcy Rodríguez's government must respect political freedoms, and the opposition is expected to support the negotiations Washington is backing.
The statement placed expectations on both women at a potentially consequential moment for Venezuela. Machado is back after approximately ten months abroad, while Rodríguez remains interim president and the United States continues to support talks over the country's political future.
"The United States expects the freedoms of all sectors of Venezuelan politics to continue to be respected," Rubio wrote Sunday on X.
He immediately followed that demand with another: "Likewise, we expect all political actors to support these talks which represent the best chance Venezuela has had in thirty years to peacefully achieve not just a free and fair election but an enduring democracy."
The addressed all political actors without naming Rodríguez or Machado individually. Its two expectations nevertheless reach both camps: protection for political participation under the interim government and support for negotiations from the opposition.
For Machado, that appeal comes despite her exclusion from the negotiating table. Her party, Vente Venezuela, is not represented in the talks. She has said she would not obstruct the process. Rubio also claimed a diplomatic achievement for Washington, attributing Machado's safe return to the reconciliation process.
"The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela is the direct result of the U.S. supported reconciliation talks," he wrote. He said those conversations had already helped secure the release of hundreds of political prisoners and allowed hundreds of opposition figures to return from exile.
Machado announced her arrival Sunday and received an enthusiastic welcome as she traveled toward Caracas.
Her homecoming restores her physical presence in a country where she had spent more than a year largely in hiding before leaving in December 2025 to travel to Norway for the Nobel Peace Prize.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) October 25, 2026The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela is the direct result of the U.S. supported reconciliation talks which has already seen hundreds of political prisoners freed and hundreds of political opposition figures return from exile.
The United States…
The government she now confronts is different from the one she left. U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January, and Rodríguez, his former vice president, assumed the interim presidency. The Trump administration subsequently established a working relationship with Rodríguez's government while supporting negotiations with a separate opposition delegation.
Machado's return brings her popular following back into that equation. But a presidential election date remains unannounced, and the negotiations have yet to resolve key questions about political participation and electoral institutions.
The latest round ended without publicly announced definitive agreements, El País reported. Participants discussed reviewing political disqualifications, restrictions affecting demonstrations and other legislation, alongside changes to the judiciary.
Those discussions have direct implications for Machado, who was barred from contesting the 2024 presidential election. Her movement backed Edmundo González Urrutia instead.
Rodríguez had warned before Machado's homecoming that the opposition leader would have to answer upon returning, without specifying before whom or on what grounds.
Rubio's insistence that political freedoms remain protected now accompanies Machado's efforts to organize inside Venezuela. His demand for support for the talks accompanies those same efforts.
Further negotiations are planned for November, with Machado back in the country but still outside the delegation discussing its political future.
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