MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Machado's team says three attempts to return to Venezuela failed in 24 hours

Asked about the matter, Trump denied having told her not to return, saying he had said nothing to her about it

The circle around Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said this week that three attempts to return to Venezuela from Panama, by sea and by air, were thwarted within roughly 24 hours. One was recorded in a flight manifest placing her among the passengers of an aircraft that never took off; the document does not establish why.

“In recent hours there have been three attempts, by sea and air, from Panama, without success. That makes seven attempts — yes, seven — in recent weeks. They will not let her return to her own country,” her international relations adviser, Pedro Urruchurtu, wrote on X. The reasons given for the cancellations come from the account of journalist Idania Chirinos, of NTN24, who is accompanying Machado in Panama: on Monday, a sea crossing was suspended when the vessel's owner cited mechanical faults that Chirinos called “strange”, even though Machado's passport had already been stamped by immigration; on Tuesday morning, a flight to Aruba did not take off; and in the afternoon the attempt via Curaçao fell through. “The Nobel Peace Prize winner is a prisoner in Panama,” Chirinos said. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, confirmed to the same channel that she remains in that country.

The manifest for the third attempt, obtained by the outlet UHN Plus, details a flight scheduled for Tuesday, September 22, aboard a Beechcraft BE-90F, registration HP-4DMB, from Marcos A. Gelabert airport in Panama City to Hato airport in Curaçao. Alongside Machado it lists four others: Monique Herrera, Rafael Alfonzo, Esteban Fraga and Ferdelin Bonilla, whose name appears with different spellings depending on the source. According to El País, Alfonzo is the opposition leader's lobbyist in Washington and Bonilla an adviser to Panama's foreign minister and a director of a state electricity company; those details were not independently verified.

The document also records that Machado would travel on a Panamanian passport, serial PD2000017. The outlet that obtained the manifest describes it as diplomatic; El País says it would be a special travel document Panama grants on humanitarian grounds to foreigners with a documented public record, and that it does not entail acquiring a new nationality. Her Venezuelan passport expired years ago and the authorities have not renewed it. Panama's government has not commented.

There are two hypotheses about the source of the obstruction, and neither is established. El País attributes the blocking to Washington, citing Axios reporting that Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau had approved an earlier trip while Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Mike Kozak conveyed that US policy is not to facilitate Machado's return. Machado herself, however, said on June 29 that it was the Venezuelan government that had closed commercial airspace to prevent her from entering.

Leopoldo López's party, Voluntad Popular, recalled that Venezuela's constitution recognises citizens' right to enter national territory and called on the interim authorities to guarantee Machado's return and her political participation without restrictions.

Asked about the matter, Trump denied having told her not to return, saying he had said nothing to her about it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said days earlier that Machado can return to her country “whenever she wants”; asked this week about the failed attempts, he avoided a direct answer and noted he had spent the day at the UN.

Machado, founder of Vente Venezuela and the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, left Venezuela in early December that year to receive the award in Oslo, after more than a year and a half in hiding. The attempts coincided with the presence in New York of acting president Delcy Rodríguez, who is attending the General Assembly and met Trump on Tuesday.