Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado drew several thousand supporters to a rally in Madrid on Saturday, declining a meeting with Spain’s progressive Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez while expressing support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s removal of Nicolás Maduro in January. Machado’s decision came as Sánchez hosted a summit of progressive world leaders in Barcelona. Standing beside Madrid’s conservative regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the Puerta del Sol, Machado described the progressive summit as a reason the meeting with Sánchez “was not advisable.” The Venezuelan opposition leader, who holds the Nobel Peace Prize, presented the award to Trump earlier this year and said she remains in close contact with his administration about Venezuela’s political future.
The contrast between Machado’s trajectory and her current diplomatic positioning highlights a central tension in post-Maduro Venezuela. While the exiled leader commands support among democratic opposition figures globally, her explicit alignment with Trump’s military intervention has isolated her from progressive governments that criticized the U.S. operation.
The Rally and the Snub
Machado’s gathering at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol drew supporters from Spain’s substantial Venezuelan diaspora. Some 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain—the largest population outside the Americas—many of whom fled Maduro’s government due to political persecution, violence, and the country’s collapsing economy.
At the rally, 27-year-old migrant Grehlsy Peñuela held signs bearing the faces of two cousins she said remain imprisoned in Caracas as political prisoners. She said she would only consider returning to Venezuela on one condition: “That the current government completely steps down.”
The Path to Madrid
Before the 2024 election, Machado had crisscrossed Venezuela rallying millions of voters seeking to end 25 years of single-party rule. When barred from running, diplomat Edmundo González took her place on the ballot. Election officials loyal to Maduro’s government declared Maduro the winner despite credible evidence suggesting González had won.
Machado had spent more than a decade in opposition, often in hiding due to political threats. After the disputed election, she retreated further from public view, finally reemerging last December to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway—the first time in over a decade she had left Venezuelan soil.
The Current Stalemate
Delcy Rodríguez continues as interim president of Venezuela, exceeding her initial 90-day mandate. The U.S. has lifted some sanctions against her, even as Machado—aligned with Trump’s administration—charts a path toward democratic elections.
Machado’s European tour took her to meet leaders of France, Italy, and the Netherlands before arriving in Spain. She expressed confidence in the Trump administration’s approach to Venezuela: “I am in permanent contact with officials in the Trump administration and trust in Washington’s phased process in Venezuela.”
She characterized the current Venezuelan government as representing “chaos, violence and terror,” and reiterated that democratic elections are necessary. Asked when and how she would return to Venezuela, Machado declined to specify, acknowledging the challenges of her eventual homecoming.