The return of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado filled the streets of the capital Caracas and other cities with supporters into Sunday evening, with peaceful marchers demanding speedy elections.
"I'm here. With you all," Machado said in a social media post late on Sunday morning, confirming reports that she had returned after 10 months in exile, kicking off marches and rallies across Venezuela.
Machado appeared at public events in cities in Venezuela's central region, including at a church mass service in Barquisimeto, throughout the day and crowds awaited her vehicle caravan in Caracas on Sunday night.
The US has said that free and fair elections are the last stage of its three-phase approach to returning Venezuela to democracy after it seized former leader Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. But Machado — whom Maduro had blocked from running in a 2024 presidential election widely viewed as stolen — had not yet returned until now despite expressing a desire to do so.
The US had a role in Machado's return, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
"The conditions allowing for the safe return of Ms. Machado to Venezuela is the direct result of the US supported reconciliation talks," Rubio said on social media.
Venezuela's acting national assembly and an opposition-controlled one that was the last the US regards as fairly elected recently completed a third round of reconciliation talks.
US president Donald Trump said about Machado's return that she is a "very nice woman" and he hopes she is safe. Machado presented Trump earlier this year with her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize she won for her efforts in Venezuela.
