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. She had been unable to make it back to her homeland until now, thwarted on several occasions by the Venezuelan government - and by the Trump administration, which insisted the "time wasn't right" for her return.
"Maria Corina is the indisputable leader of Venezuela," says 20-year-old Gregory Noriega, wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the logo of the opposition movement Vente Venezuela. "Her return represents hope." "This is a step forward in the electoral process which we've been waiting for since last year," echoes 18-year-old Hilary, who turned out on to the streets of the capital hoping to catch a glimpse of the opposition leader on her victory lap. "She's returned after the double earthquakes when Venezuela needs her," adds her friend, Manuel.
"The whole country is behind her to show that now Venezuela isn't scared." Much has changed since Machado left Venezuelan soil to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Then-President Nicolás Maduro is no longer at the top of the Venezuelan government. Maduro was forcibly removed from power by US troops on 3 January, and whisked to New York where he faces drugs, weapons and torture charges – to which he's pleaded not guilty.
He was replaced by his former vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, who has turned the page with Washington in ways few could have imagined. The bilateral relationship is today unrecognisable from the years of mutual animosity during the reigns of President Hugo Chávez and then his handpicked successor, Maduro. The new circumstances throw up some interesting conundrums for both sides.
When Machado left Venezuela, she had long been considered Washington's favoured alternative to Maduro. She returns to find the Trump administration perfectly happy with the one they've got – at least for the time being. The Trump administration recently signed a major oil deal with Venezuela which gave the US a 100-year concession over a staggering 65bn barrels of Venezuelan crude oil.
The deal was reached in conjunction with a Venezuelan private company called North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) run by a businessman with a chequered past, Alejandro Betancourt. Machado has openly criticised the deal which the Rodríguez government reached with the US, albeit careful to direct her criticism at Caracas and at Betancourt rather than President Trump, to whom she gave her peace prize and whose trust and support she craves to move forward. President Trump has repeatedly said how satisfied he is with Delcy Rodríguez, calling her "wonderful" and "a terrific person".
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