Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado (a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and long-time dissident who was barred from running in Venezuela's disputed 2024 election) has said she expects to return to Venezuela before the end of 2026 and is urging the United States to accelerate plans for free elections. Speaking to Reuters from Madrid, where she addressed thousands of Venezuelan exiles at a rally, Machado warned that delays in holding a credible vote risk triggering civil unrest, comparing pent-up public frustration to "an enormous dam" that could become uncontrollable. Machado, who has lived mainly in the US since leaving Venezuela in December to collect her Nobel Prize, said electoral preparations — including updating voter rolls and appointing a new electoral council — could be completed in eight or nine months.