Overview
- María Corina Machado met Secretary of State Marco Rubio behind closed doors in Washington and later called the meeting excellent, while the State Department offered no public readout.
- Rubio said Venezuela must pass through a transition before reaching full democracy and he stressed that free and fair elections remain the goal.
- No election timetable or concrete steps were announced, leaving the pace and sequence of reforms undefined.
- The engagement followed the formal restoration of U.S. relations with Delcy Rodríguez's government and the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.
- Machado's party says she will return to Venezuela in the coming days without a set date, as reporting also notes Nicolás Maduro's January capture and Rodríguez's current role.