Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, returned home on Sunday after nearly a year in exile, in a direct challenge to the US-backed interim government.
Wearing her trademark white T-shirt and blue jeans, Machado greeted cheering supporters in towns along the highway to Caracas.
In Guacara, AFP witnessed Machado atop a vehicle singing the national anthem as thousands lined the streets shouting "Liberty!"
Her arrival thrusts Venezuela's most influential opposition figure back into a transition process from which she has largely been sidelined, as interim President Delcy Rodriguez and a faction of the opposition hold Washington-backed talks on the country's political future.
She returns nine months after Nicolas Maduro was captured in a US military operation and Rodriguez took over as interim president.
"I am here. With you," Machado wrote on X.
Two Venezuelan exiles told AFP she had entered the country overland from Colombia, although Colombian authorities did not immediately confirm the account.
The 59-year-old had made at least seven unsuccessful attempts to return to Venezuela, according to sources in her Vente Venezuela party.
Machado left the country in December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after spending nearly a year in hiding amid a wave of arrests that followed Maduro's disputed 2024 re-election.
Venezuelan authorities declared Maduro the winner but never shared detailed results, while the opposition said their tally showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning.
Machado departed church Sunday in the back of a pickup truck, as her supporters ran into the street to shake her hand.
A woman shouted "Maria, if you come back, my daughter has to come back," referring to countless Venezuelans who have fled the country for economic opportunity.
Machado has repeatedly praised US President Donald Trump for launching the risky operation, and even gifted him the Nobel medal she received.
Asked by reporters Sunday about Machado's return, Trump said "I don't know anything about it, but I think she's a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel prize, so how can I say anything else?"
"We're doing very well in Venezuela," he added.
Trump has repeatedly expressed satisfaction with Rodriguez -- who was Maduro's deputy -- as she fulfills US demands, particularly on granting access to Venezuelan oil.
The interim government has held multiple rounds of negotiations with a faction of the opposition, which has not yet set a date for new elections.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Machado's return had been made possible by the Washington-backed talks -- and he urged her to support them going forward.
"We expect all political actors to support these talks which represent the best chance Venezuela has had in thirty years to peacefully achieve not just a free and fair election but an enduring democracy," he said.
Machado has been sidelined from the discussions, but the opposition delegation welcomed her return "in freedom."
Last week, thousands demonstrated in Caracas and other cities, demanding her return, carrying signs that demanded elections and voiced support for Machado.
Many leaders from the Vente Venezuela party have recently returned from exile that was prompted by a post-election purge that left 28 dead and resulted in more than 2,400 arrests, including dozens of Machado’s associates.
Her party wants elections in 2027 and for her to be allowed to run, unlike the last presidential vote.
Venezuela sits on the world's largest proven oil reserves, but its current production of one million barrels of crude per day falls far short of the three million it averaged decades ago, due to years of corruption and poor management.
Rodriguez has granted Washington access to a huge chunk of the country's crude reserves and signed agreements with foreign companies to look for, produce and export oil and gas.