U.S. calls Machado's Venezuela return bid a political stunt

U.S. officials dismissed María Corina Machado’s push to return to earthquake-battered Venezuela as a political stunt. The move risked distracting from relief and recovery while the country was still counting the dead and clearing rubble. Machado, who was in Panama, said on Monday that she was “willing to do whatever it takes” to enter Venezuela and help coordinate the response.

Twin earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, just seconds apart, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. Early counts put the toll at at least 32 dead and about 700 injured. Later figures rose to more than 1,430 dead, with thousands still believed trapped. Another later count put the number of dead above 1,700 and the injured at about 5,000.

Machado said she had been reaching out in recent days to officials at the White House, the State Department and Congress to seek support for her return. The State Department was “solely focused” on the earthquake response. U.S. officials urged her to delay the trip partly over safety concerns and partly because Washington was working through the emergency with Delcy Rodríguez, who became acting president after Nicolás Maduro was captured in a U.S. military operation in January.

Machado has been in hiding or exile since claiming victory in Venezuela’s disputed 2024 election, and she left the country in late 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Machado accused the Venezuelan government of trying to block her return by closing airspace and canceling commercial flights. She also said officials were restricting information about the scale of the disaster. In eastern and northern Venezuela, the quakes caused severe damage around Caracas and at Maiquetía International Airport, where the main runway remained closed at least until July 2 because of pavement cracks and damage to the control tower and terminal, even as limited humanitarian flights continued.