After nearly a year in exile and six attempts to return to Venezuela, Maria Machado is back in the country: what is her next move?

Maria Corina Machado, the leading figure in Venezuela’s opposition, announced that she had returned to the country, nearly a year after leaving to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I’m here. With you,” she wrote today on X.

Her arrival was also confirmed by Edmundo Gonzalez, Machado’s close ally, who lives in exile, the Guardian reported. “Venezuela! I’m very happy to announce that our leader, my dear Maria Corina, is on Venezuelan soil,” he wrote on social media.

Gonzalez described the day as an important one for Venezuelans, saying their leading voice had returned to guide the process. He added that he, too, would return to the country soon.

It is not yet known how Machado, 59, managed to enter Venezuela. Images posted on social media showed her in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara state, about 350 kilometers west of Caracas. In the photographs, her supporters surround her inside a church called the Shrine of the Divine Shepherdess, holding up their mobile phones.

According to reports, the Trump administration opposed her return, concerned that Machado’s presence could complicate the close relationship she has built with interim President Delcy Rodriguez. That relationship developed after the kidnapping in January of Rodriguez’s former boss, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Machado and Rodriguez are political rivals with deep differences.

Machado secretly left Venezuela last December, a few weeks before Maduro’s arrest. In recent months, she has reportedly tried more than six times to return, but without success. Her attempts continued even after the devastating earthquake that struck the northern coast in June.

After Maduro’s ouster, many expected Trump to clear the way for Machado to take power. Her movement is widely considered to have won the 2024 presidential election, but Maduro refused to relinquish power.

Trump, however, chose not to support Machado. Instead, he decided to work with Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, who now leads a country widely seen as being under the influence of the United States.