Venezuela Election Date Must Be Set, Machado Says, Vowing to Return
VENEZUELA · POLITICS
Key Facts
- —The country Venezuela, an oil-rich country on the Caribbean coast, has been led by acting president Delcy Rodríguez since US forces seized Nicolás Maduro in January.
- —The background No presidential vote has been called. Rodríguez promised elections at the United Nations on 23 September but named no day, month or year.
- —What happened On Sunday 4 October, opposition leader María Corina Machado demanded a Venezuela election date in a New York Post op-ed.
- —Her pledge The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner called her return home “urgent” and promised to travel the country, but gave no date.
- —The numbers She says Venezuela could pump “well over 5 million barrels a day” with about US$200 billion of investment, roughly four times August output.
- —What it means for you She links long-term oil contracts to an elected government, so investors face the question of who signs deals that last.
- —Still open The acting government had not publicly answered by Monday morning, and her team counts seven failed attempts to fly home.
María Corina Machado has made a Venezuela election date her central demand. Writing in the New York Post on Sunday 4 October, she called for “a date for presidential elections within the next year”.
The opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner also called her own return home “urgent”, without naming a day. On the same day, 4 October, her party said she is ready to meet acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
What Machado Wrote in the New York Post
The article ran on the paper’s opinion pages under the headline “Why I must return to Venezuela — and the people must vote”. It opens with 3 January, when US forces captured Nicolás Maduro, who now faces trial in the United States.
Since then, she wrote, Venezuela and the United States have had “a historic opportunity” to dismantle cartels and bring millions of emigrants home. The process can only succeed, she argued, if “the Venezuelan people” are fully engaged.
Her answer is a vote with a fixed calendar and a “roadmap” of reforms to make it free and fair. A firm Venezuela election date, she wrote, would give citizens “a horizon for organizing and participating”.
She also cited US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said Venezuela must hold free elections. Machado agreed, adding: “Venezuelans need to know when.”
Why She Calls Her Return Urgent
Machado left Venezuela in December 2025 to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo and has not been back since. “I will return and travel the country,” she wrote on Sunday.
Her duty, she said, is to “channel growing social tensions peacefully” and to strengthen the opposition’s network of citizen groups. She also wants to forge “a national agreement among civilians and the military”.
Getting home has proved hard. Her communications chief, Claudia Macero, said that Machado has tried seven times in the past eight months.
The government denies standing in her way. Interior minister Diosdado Cabello called her complaints a “show” on Wednesday 30 September and asked what stops her from coming, La Verdad reported.
The Oil Pitch to Washington
Much of the article speaks to American readers and investors. Machado wrote that Venezuela holds “over 300 billion barrels of oil”, plus gas, hydropower and critical minerals, “just three hours from Florida”.
With about US$200 billion of investment, she argued, the country “can produce well over 5 million barrels a day”. That would be roughly four times what it pumps today.
Venezuela produced roughly 1.1 to 1.2 million barrels a day in August, depending on the source. Its record output, set in 1970, was 3.75 million barrels a day, OilPrice.com noted in August.
Capital on that scale, Machado wrote, needs contracts of 20 to 30 years that bind future governments. Only an elected government under “a Western rule of law” could offer that, she argued, “without costing American taxpayers a dollar”.
She pledged that Venezuela would honour contracts, protect private property and build a lasting alliance with the United States. Washington already deals with the acting government under an oil agreement.
The 2024 Vote at the Heart of Her Case
Machado rests her claim on the presidential election of 28 July 2024. “We won overwhelmingly,” she wrote, adding that Maduro “imprisoned more than 2,000 people” afterwards.
Officially, the National Electoral Council (CNE), which runs Venezuelan votes, declared Maduro the winner with 51.2 percent. It never published results by polling station, and the opposition says its own tally sheets show its candidate, Edmundo González, won.
Machado was barred from standing in that election and campaigned for González instead. The 2024 vote, she argues, proved that Venezuelans “can organize, vote and peacefully defend our will”.
Where the Acting Government Stands
Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice-president, has run the country since January. At the UN General Assembly on 23 September she promised that there will be elections, but named no date.
The people, she said, would “determine the correct moment”. Macero said on Sunday that the opposition is holding to a vote in July 2027, and rejected talk in official circles of 2030.
US-backed talks between the acting government and the National Assembly elected in 2015 opened in Caracas in mid-September. Macero said that, as far as she knew, Machado’s party Vente Venezuela had received no formal invitation.
The acting government had not publicly answered the op-ed by Monday morning.
What the Op-Ed Does Not Change
The article is a demand, not an agreement, and no Venezuela election date has been set. The CNE, which would organise any vote, has announced no timetable.
Nor does the op-ed bring Machado home. She has given no travel date, and her team says she holds no valid Venezuelan passport.
For foreign investors, the message cuts both ways. Machado promises respect for contracts, but argues that only commitments made with a legitimate, elected government will bring lasting stability.
What Comes Next
The first test is whether Rodríguez answers either the op-ed or the offer of direct talks. Neither side has announced any channel for a meeting.
Machado is also pressing the Trump administration to turn its call for free elections into a calendar. Its oil agreement with the acting government, meanwhile, stays in force.
Until then, Venezuelans still have no Venezuela election date, and the Nobel laureate who leads the opposition remains outside the country.
More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Who is María Corina Machado?
She leads Venezuela’s opposition and founded the party Vente Venezuela. She won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and has lived abroad since December 2025; a fuller profile of María Corina Machado explains her record.
Has Venezuela set a presidential election date?
No. Acting president Delcy Rodríguez promised elections at the UN on 23 September but gave no date. Machado now wants a Venezuela election date fixed, with elections “within the next year”, and her party has spoken of July 2027.
Why has Machado not gone back to Venezuela?
Her team says seven attempts to return have failed and that she lacks a valid Venezuelan passport. The government denies blocking her, and interior minister Diosdado Cabello has publicly told her to come.
What does this mean for oil investors?
Machado says Venezuela could pump well over 5 million barrels a day with about US$200 billion of investment. She argues that contracts of that length need an elected government, which ties a Venezuela election date to deal security.
Sources: New York Post (op-ed by María Corina Machado), 4 October 2026; La Patilla, 4 October 2026; AlbertoNews, 5 October 2026; El Cooperante, 4 October 2026; La Verdad, 1 October 2026; OilPrice.com, 5 August 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief