New Delhi, Oct. 26 -- IT WAS, AS is her style, a homecoming laden with symbolism. When the first images of the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado emerged from inside Venezuela after a near ten-month exile on October 25th, they showed her surrounded by supporters next to the statue of the Divina Pastora. The shrine, inside a church near the western city of Barquisimeto, depicts the Virgin Mary as a shepherdess guiding her flock. Shortly before she appeared Ms Machado had posted a cryptic message on X: "I am here. With you all."

Her theatrical return caught millions of Venezuelans-and possibly the country's ruling regime-by surprise. For months the wildly popular politician had been promising to come back "soon" to Venezuela. She had l...