Venezuelan opposition leader María Machado returns after months in exile

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned home to a fraught political landscape after more than 10 months in exile.



"I am here. With you," Machado wrote on X on Sunday.



Her return comes after repeated prior efforts to re-enter the country came to no avail.



In January, a month after Machado left Venezuela on a speedboat under cover of darkness to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the US seized her opponent, President Nicolás Maduro.



The Trump administration then backed his deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, as leader and she was sworn in as interim president, later signing an oil deal which granted very favourable terms to the US.



Machado was photographed on Sunday attending Mass at a church in the Venezuelan state of Lara, surrounded by supporters hugging her and clasping her hands.

Her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo González, confirmed her arrival, writing in a statement: "I am thrilled to announce to you that our leader, my dear Maria Corina, is on Venezuelan soil."