Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado took to the streets across the country, demanding her safe return and free elections. Waving Venezuelan flags, they drove in convoys through several cities, footage shows.

Machado hasn't been able to get home since she travelled to Oslo in December for the Nobel ceremony. She is currently in Panama and has so far made seven unsuccessful attempts to return, the German agency dpa reports. For a woman who won the world's most prestigious peace prize, seven failed attempts to reach her own country say more than any speech.

Among the demonstrators were supporters of the opposition parties Vente Venezuela and Primero Justicia. They demanded a firm date for the 2027 presidential election and chanted "Freedom, freedom!"

Maduro fell - did the machine stay?

The context makes the story even more absurd. A few weeks after Machado secretly left Venezuela, US forces captured the authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in a military operation in Caracas in January. Since then the country has been run by acting president Delcy Rodríguez, who works closely with Washington. Rodríguez was Maduro's vice president, and the opposition sees her as part of the old authoritarian system.

So: the dictator has been removed, Washington has a partner in Caracas, and the Nobel peace laureate is still waiting in Panama. How many times in the Balkans have we watched a leader fall while the people who built his system stay in their seats? And how many times have those who shouted loudest for his fall ended up left out of the game?