Star Metro - Aide to Venezuelan opposition leader returns from exile

Hundreds of cheering people greeted Claudia Macero as she arrived at the airport that serves Caracas.

Machado herself has repeatedly been denied permission to return to Venezuela following the US capture of Nicolas Maduro in January and the installation of a US-aligned government.

Since then, Venezuela has operated under the thumb of President Donald Trump, who has demanded and obtained access to Venezuela's vast oil resources and other benefits for US interests.

"It is time to come home. It is time to recover the country," Macero, who ran press operations for Machado, said as supporters sang the national anthem.

"I feel very emotional, especially for my family, for my colleagues," she said.

Asked when Machado might return, Macero said she did not know.

"Maria Corina is trying every day to come home," she said. "Evidently there is a very difficult process but this will come to an end."

Machado came out of hiding in December to collect her Nobel prize in Norway. After a brief stay in the United States she has settled in Panama City.

Her Vente party says she has tried seven times to return to Venezuela.

"I hope this eighth attempt will be the final one," Macero said. "She has the right as a Venezuelan to be here... there should be no obstacle to her return."

Analysts say it is Washington -- which keeps close tabs on interim president Delcy Rodriguez and all but runs the country as a satellite -- that is barring Machado from returning. The Trump administration denies this.

- 'There will be elections' -

Macero, 34, is one of several Machado associates who took refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas in March 2024 and stayed there for a year to elude arrest during a wave of repression ahead of presidential elections that year.

In May 2025, they left the embassy and turned up in the United States after a secretive operation that the Trump administration says it engineered but never explained.

Hundreds of Machado's supporters demonstrated across Venezuela on Sunday to demand her safe return.

Juan Pablo Guanipa, an opposition politician and close ally of Machado, called for presidential elections.

"We have to keep going until we achieve the free and democratic country we aspire to," he said at a rally in the northwestern state of Zulia.

Rodriguez told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that "there will be elections" in Venezuela but did not mention a timeline.

The second round of US-backed negotiations between the interim government and opposition members concluded in September with an agreement to work on reforming the country's top court.

The agreement marked the first concrete step in broader judicial reform long sought by the opposition and promised by Rodriguez.

D.Cameron--SMC