Venezuela opposition alliance confirms exiled Nobel laureate Machado as leader

A Venezuelan opposition alliance on Sunday confirmed exiled Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado as its leader, pressuring interim authorities to allow her return (The Hindu, citing AFP).

Its Unitary Democratic Platform (PUD) agreed to “recognise and support the leadership of Maria Corina Machado,” per its Caracas document. The move was part of a new “Grand National Agreement”; Machado, in Panama, joined virtually (AFP via the Jamaica Observer).

“We are now going to move forward with one of the initiatives that I consider the most powerful, most potent and most necessary, and that will be recognized around the world: our great agreement for rebuilding the republic,” she told AFP.

The alliance tabled 14 proposals — with an election roadmap, no vote date — demanding freed political prisoners, an end to repression, the exiles’ right to return, free parties, lifted candidate bans, ending proceedings against political groups, and human-rights protections. Vente, Machado’s party, wants elections next year and a date set.

Maduro was captured in January by the US military and flown to New York for trial; deputy Delcy Rodríguez governs under intense pressure. The announcement comes amid a third round of transition talks, while Machado — exiled since leaving Venezuela covertly in 2025 for her Nobel Prize — has, per her party, tried seven times to return but been blocked.

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