Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado greets the crowd gathered around her vehicle on October 25, 2026 in Caracas, VenezuelaImage source, Getty Images
ByWill GrantBBC's Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondent
  • Published1 hour ago

Driving down roads lined with jubilant supporters from the western state of Lara to the capital Caracas, Maria Corina Machado's return to Venezuela could hardly have been more different to her exit 10 months earlier.

Colourful, loud, open and defiant, it stood in stark contrast to the way the Venezuelan opposition leader slipped out of the country in the dead of night in December last year to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.