María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has remained outside the country since late 2025 while coordinating her potential re-entry with U.S. officials and international partners. Following Nicolás Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces in January 2026 and the installation of acting president Delcy Rodríguez, Machado has publicly stated in recent May interviews that she intends to return much sooner than her earlier end-of-2026 target, citing security, logistics, and the need to advance free elections. Her statements come amid ongoing diplomatic pressure on Venezuela’s interim authorities and domestic calls for a credible electoral timeline, factors that continue to shape trader assessments of near-term re-entry probabilities.