Crowds welcome Venezuela's María Machado after months in exile

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned home after more than 10 months in exile.

“I am here. With you,” Machado wrote on X on Sunday. Her return came after several prior efforts to re-enter the country came to no avail.

Machado attended Mass at a church in the state of Lara, and was surrounded by jubilant supporters.

Later, huge crowds lined the route of her journey through Caracas

The US seized her opponent, President Nicolás Maduro, last January. The move came a month after Machado escaped Venezuela under cover of darkness to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.

The Trump administration then backed his deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, as leader and she was sworn in as interim president.

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