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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / How Machado’s Return to Venezuela Got Derailed

How Machado’s Return to Venezuela Got Derailed

July 3, 2026 at 8:58 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Maria Corina Machado was on her way home,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A private jet took off from Virginia on Friday last week to carry her to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, where the Venezuelan opposition leader planned to launch a trip back to her country for the first time since she fled in secret in December, said people familiar with the matter. Twin earthquakes had just devastated Venezuela’s coast, causing thousands of casualties. This was the moment, she believed, to return from exile.”

“But about an hour into the flight, the dispatcher of the jet’s charter company abruptly told the pilots to turn the Hawker 800 around over North Carolina and return to the Washington area.”

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Filed Under: Foreign Affairs

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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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