A fearless activist with rock star appeal, Maria Corina Machado is the lynchpin of Venezuela's opposition but faces a tough challenge as she returns to a country now ruled by a leader in US President Donald Trump's good graces.
Machado, 59, has been in exile since covertly leaving her South American homeland late last year to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
According to her Vente Venezuela party, she tried several times to return but was blocked -- before she appeared Sunday at a church in the city of Barquisimeto surrounded by cheering supporters.
The month after she fled Venezuela, US forces seized the country's longtime authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro and flew him to New York to face criminal charges.
Machado has heaped praise on Trump for launching the risky operation, and even gave him her Nobel Prize medal, though Washington has allowed Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, to rule as interim president.
In a sign of her awkward position, Machado has been sidelined from US-sponsored talks toward a democratic transition between the interim government and opposition representatives.
But an alliance of Venezuelan opposition parties earlier this month reaffirmed Machado as its leader.
"We are at the beginning of a new era. We will finally make the liberal democratic republic a reality... Venezuela will be free," Machado told the alliance.
"I have always been grateful to the president of the United States for opening a door to progress toward freedom, democracy and true sovereignty," she added.
This week, thousands demonstrated in Caracas and other cities, demanding her return from exile in Panama.
In Caracas, protesters carried signs that read "Elections NOW and this time they're not going to steal from us" and "Brave MCM," referring to Machado's initials.
But Trump has repeatedly expressed satisfaction with Rodriguez, who has acceded to US demands, particularly on granting access to Venezuelan oil.
Machado was barred from challenging Maduro in July 2024 elections and went into hiding after the vote, which the opposition and much of the international community accuses Maduro of stealing.
During the campaign, she crisscrossed the country by road, wearing jeans and a white shirt, with rosary beads around her neck.
Her rousing speeches, calling for an end to a quarter-century of increasingly repressive socialist rule, frequently moved supporters to tears.
She won an opposition primary with 90 percent of votes cast in 2023, but was promptly declared ineligible by authorities loyal to Maduro.
Machado took a political back seat and campaigned instead for her last-minute stand-in: little-known former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
The opposition's tally of ballots showed Gonzalez Urrutia easily defeating Maduro in the election -- but Maduro was proclaimed the winner, sparking deadly riots which were brutally repressed.
Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile after a bounty was placed on his head, while Machado stayed behind to lead the resistance.
After months of hiding, she briefly re-emerged on the eve of Maduro's inauguration for a third term to address an opposition rally.
"We are not afraid," she declared, before exiting on the back of a motorcycle to avoid arrest.
She has remained a tireless democracy campaigner on social media, where she regularly posts videos assuring Venezuelans that change is near at hand.
An engineer by training, Caracas-born Machado entered politics in 2002 at the head of the association Sumate (Join us), pushing for a referendum to recall Maduro's mentor, the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
She is divorced and has three children who live outside Venezuela due to threats to their safety.
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