Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado greets supporters upon her arrival in Caracas on Oct. 25, after almost a year in exile. | AFP-JIJI

Maria Corina Machado’s return to Venezuela has some of the same sweep and drama of Simon Bolivar’s return more than two centuries ago. But if she wants her story to end better than one of the great heroic deeds of 19th-century Latin America, she will have to match her passion for her nation with patience for change.

Here comes the country’s defining heroine, a Nobel laureate, finally returning home after repeated failed attempts and almost a year in exile, with thousands of Venezuelans rushing to greet her with admiration and pride.…