The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the press on 26 October that the administration of President Donald J. Trump had obtained in past weeks assurances from Venezuela's socialist regime on the safe return of the country's preeminent opponent María Corina Machado. She reentered the country to popular acclaim on 25 October. He told a conference call it wasn't the United States but other countries that had previously stopped Machado from flying home from their territories, to avoid offending Venezuela, the Madrid newspaper ABC reported citing agencies. The United States, Rubio said, was working with the regime and opposition to set up the "electoral infrastructure" that would assure proper elections, though he gave no date for those. He did insist this should happen not in "10, five or two years" before before, suggesting possible elections before the end of the Trump presidency. The Miami Herald elaborated on 26 October on the changes the opposition and regime were negotiating, specifically an overhaul of two key bodies, the Venezuelan supreme court and its national electoral body.
