Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado announced on Sunday that she has returned to her homeland following almost a year in exile, after covertly leaving Venezuela in late 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She returns as doubts about her country’s democratic future and the role of the US are growing.

It is the first time in Brazil's history since the return of democracy in the country that a candidate who lost in the first round managed to come back and win in the runoff. The left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva obtained 51.7% of the votes, compared with 48.2% won by right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

Brazilians are set on Sunday to choose between leftist incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and far-right candidate Flavio Bolsonaro in the run-off vote of a deeply polarizing presidential election, and one which will determine whether the US significantly expands its growing influence in Latin America.