Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado’s team says the Venezuelan opposition leader tried three times within roughly 24 hours to return home, only to remain outside the country as President Donald Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with interim President Delcy Rodríguez since Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces in January.
The overlapping events underscored two increasingly separate tracks in Venezuela’s post-Maduro transition. Machado is still trying to physically reenter the country, while Rodríguez is holding talks with Washington, international lenders, and companies over Venezuela’s political and economic reconstruction.
Machado senior adviser David Smolansky said she attempted to enter Venezuela three times by air and sea during the previous 24 hours. Reuters reported that another adviser, Pedro Urruchurtu, described the attempts as part of seven unsuccessful efforts since Machado secretly left Venezuela late last year.
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Machado herself has not publicly detailed the latest attempts.
NTN24 reported that one effort involved a planned maritime departure from Panama that was disrupted by alleged mechanical problems. Subsequent plans involved flying toward Aruba and Curaçao before continuing toward Venezuela.
That uncertainty matters because Washington has previously expressed reservations about Machado returning. Reuters reported in June that senior US officials had urged her to delay a return following Venezuela’s earthquakes. A September 16 report said four opposition sources described continued US reluctance around the timing of her homecoming.
Meanwhile, Rodríguez was in New York advancing a substantially different agenda.
Trump and Rodríguez met late Tuesday at a reception hosted by the US president on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Rodríguez called the encounter a step toward strengthening US-Venezuela ties in energy, mining, and security. The meeting included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, according to a White House official cited by Reuters.
Rodríguez’s delegation has also been discussing energy projects, mining, and the restructuring of an estimated $150 billion to $200 billion in Venezuelan sovereign and PDVSA debt. Reuters reported that the Inter-American Development Bank is working on a proposed $2.5 billion Venezuela loan, while Trump has said he wants $100 billion of investment directed into the country’s oil industry.
