Venezuelan Politician Heads Home, Risks Arrest

Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado traveled home from Peru Wednesday, daring her country's leftist government to arrest her for allegedly inciting protest marches.

Machado was a member of Venezuela's legislature until Monday, when National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello kicked her out and stripped her parliamentary immunity.

Machado angered the government by going before the Organization of American States last week as a guest of Panama in an attempt to discuss the crisis in Venezuela.

Cabello said she could be arrested at any time.

Machado's return comes a day after Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced the arrest of three Venezuelan air force generals he accused of plotting a coup.

The charge comes amid a growing crackdown on the president's opponents after more than six weeks of street protests that have left at least 34 dead.

Machado supports an opposition "exit" strategy that seeks to generate pressure with street protests to force Maduro from power.

Former opposition mayor Leopoldo Lopez -- in a military jail for more than a month accused of instigating anti-government violence -- also supports the strategy.

Machado traveled Wednesday with three Peruvian lawmakers who offered to protect her in Caracas.

Her arrest upon arrival "is a possibility," Machado told Peruvian news radio RPP as the flight to Caracas stopped in Panama City.

"This regime has shown that it has no scruples whatsoever and is ready to do anything," she said.

Machado was in Lima as part of a conference on democracy in Latin America hosted by Peruvian Literature Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.

She said that she would meet supporters later in the day at a Caracas rally. "I will be there to report to my fellow citizens as their legislator of the work that took place at the OAS and in Peru," she told RPP.