María Corina Machado calls for 2027 elections in Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado called on Thursday for elections to be held in 2027, at a news conference in Caracas on the day she returned to the country after repeated failed attempts to re-enter. Machado said Venezuela’s move toward democracy was “irreversible”.

She said the transition would be “irreversible, organised, pacific”, speaking in front of a slogan that read “Let Us Be Free”, and said she had heard a single word repeated by the thousands of supporters who lined her route into the capital: freedom. “I come to carry out a task and complete a mandate,” Machado said.

When will Venezuela hold elections?

Machado said there would be elections in 2027, but did not offer an exact timeline. On the same day, Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said elections would be held and that her government should oversee a “transition of this magnitude”, without setting a date for voting. Machado dismissed that position as illogical.

What did Delcy Rodríguez say about detentions and exiles?

Shortly before Machado’s news conference, Rodríguez delivered a speech in a conciliatory tone, saying she had “instructed the security agencies that no one be detained without judicial order, except in cases of flagrant commission of crimes”. The interim president, who was Maduro’s vice-president, also spoke of “the doors being open” in Venezuela to returning exiles, and of dialogue and building consensus.

On detentions, the rights group Foro Penal has reported the release of political prisoners in Venezuela.

What role did the United States play?

Machado thanked the Trump administration for opening the “floodgate to freedom” by capturing her opponent, former president Nicolás Maduro. Her ability to return to Venezuela was contingent on approval from the Trump administration.

Machado left Venezuela last year on a speedboat, in darkness, to travel to Norway and accept the Nobel Peace Prize. In January, the US seized Maduro. The Trump administration then backed Rodríguez as leader; she was sworn in as interim president and later signed an oil deal that granted favourable terms to the US. Trump has also met Delcy Rodríguez at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Will Machado run for president again?

It remains unclear what Machado plans to do next, although she has previously said she would run for president again if an election were held. She said she had not received a message or invitation to meet from Rodríguez, and that she would not personally take part in election negotiations between opposition representatives and the government. Machado said she wished them well in their work, aimed at reforming the electoral body so that every Venezuelan, inside the country and abroad, could vote.

Frequently asked questions

Will Venezuela hold elections in 2027?

Opposition leader María Corina Machado said there would be elections in 2027, and interim president Delcy Rodríguez said voting would be held, but neither gave an exact date.

Who is Venezuela’s interim president?

Delcy Rodríguez, who was Nicolás Maduro’s vice-president, was sworn in as interim president after the US seized Maduro in January, with backing from the Trump administration.

Why did Machado’s return depend on the US?

Machado’s ability to return to Venezuela was contingent on approval from the Trump administration, which had backed interim president Delcy Rodríguez as leader.

Will Machado run for president again?

Machado has previously said she would run for president again if an election were held. She has not said what she plans to do next.

With reporting from BBC News.

Stock image, not from the events described. City Skyline — Joe deSousa / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)