On 26 June, a private aircraft carrying Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was forced to abort its flight to Curaçao and return to Washington after US officials intervened to prevent her from reaching Venezuela. The plane had been airborne for roughly an hour when the charter operator, acting on instructions relayed from the White House, ordered the pilots to turn back over North Carolina. Machado, who fled Venezuela clandestinely in December, had intended to travel by boat from the Dutch Caribbean island to her homeland, repeating the route she used to escape, in order to join earthquake relief efforts following the twin tremors that killed more than 2,500 people.

The White House and State Department viewed the planned return as an untimely political manoeuvre that risked destabilising the interim administration of Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice-president installed with US backing after the military extraction of Nicolás Maduro in January. US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had for months urged Machado to be patient, warning that an early return would endanger her safety and complicate Washington’s strategy of stabilising Venezuela through the Rodríguez government. Through intermediaries, the White House conveyed that persisting with the journey could cost Machado the support of President Donald Trump and undermine his approach to Caracas. A State Department spokesperson later stated that introducing sensitive political questions during the earthquake response would be counterproductive.

Machado and her advisers were taken by surprise, believing they had received sufficient assurances from senior administration figures that the trip could proceed. Flight plans and landing rights had been approved, and Dutch authorities in Curaçao had initially granted permission for her to disembark despite an expired passport, on the assumption that Washington endorsed the journey. When it became clear that the US did not support the move, the Netherlands withdrew the landing clearance. Machado subsequently attempted a second return via Panama, but the airline Copa refused to carry her, citing fears of a backlash from Caracas. In a video address, she accused the Rodríguez government of closing airspace to block her, and later told journalists that her presence would be a stabilising force, arguing that the earthquakes had exposed Venezuela as a “failed state.”

The episode illustrates the competing priorities shaping US policy. Washington simultaneously backs Rodríguez, whom Trump has praised for courting investors and stabilising the country, and Machado, the figurehead of the opposition who claims her coalition won the 2024 presidential election and who symbolically gifted her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump. Viewed from Washington, the priority is to avoid any disruption to the transitional arrangement that, in the assessment of European diplomats, secures access to Venezuelan oil and keeps the political process under US influence. The Dutch decision to revoke landing rights only after US signals confirmed the extent to which the administration controls the practical levers of Machado’s movement.

Machado remains in exile, and her team has not requested formal US security guarantees for a return. The immediate next step is unclear, but her public statements indicate she will continue to seek a way back, while the White House shows no sign of relaxing its opposition. The earthquake recovery effort remains the immediate humanitarian focus, and it also delays any political reckoning over Venezuela’s transitional leadership.