It was criticism over gas prices and how major U.S. cities’ resources were strained by the massive migration from Venezuela that led the Biden administration to engage in direct talks with the Maduro regime in mid-2023. As part of those talks, the parties accomplished the unexpected, ultimately starring a blockbuster prisoner swap that included Maduro’s financier, Alex Saab, and a Malaysian defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” wanted by the U.S.

Biden’s closest advisers, along with many Democrats in congress, have long seen applying maximum pressure on Venezuela as a counterproductive strategy that strengthened Maduro’s grip while exacerbating the suffering of ordinary Venezuelans, with the sanctions merely driving even more people to flee to the U.S.

However, Venezuela’s economic stabilization in and of itself is unlikely to bring back all those of its citizens who’ve left. A political change is the biggest incentive for them to return, according to a poll conducted by public opinion firm GBAO for Colorado-based nonprofit organization PAX sapiens. Venezuelan analysts are also predicting that without a political change, there will be another migration wave of about 2 million Venezuelans.

When asked during a webcast last month if she felt she had enough support from the U.S., Machado only said that both Democrats and Republicans “understood what Venezuela means in terms of national security and security for the whole hemisphere, what migration means at this point.”

Last week, when the Maduro government issued arrest warrants for nine members of her team in one fell swoop, she took a harsher tone.

“The international community says that they want free, clean elections, that they support the Barbados Agreement,” Machado, visibly disturbed, said from her party’s headquarter in Caracas. “From the international community, we expect much more than good wishes.”

Maduro has said his government is prepared for renewed sanctions, leaving the ball in the U.S.’s court.

—With assistance from Travis Waldron, Eric Martin and Jennifer Jacobs.

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