The Latest: Anti-Maduro protesters gather in Venezuela

Anti-government protesters start to gather for a rally to demand the resignation of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, March 4, 2019. The United States and about 50 other countries recognize opposition Congress President Juan Guaido as the rightful president of Venezuela, while Maduro says he is the target of a U.S.-backed coup plot. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A youth helps an elderly woman walk across the Tachira River into Colombia as people are forced to cross the border illegally due to the closure of the Simon Bolivar International Bridge by Venezuelan authorities, in La Parada, near Cucuta, Colombia, Sunday, March 3, 2019. Last weekend, opposition leader Juan Guaido coordinated a failed effort to bring aid from Colombia and Brazil into Venezuela, where security forces loyal to President Nicolas Maduro blocked the supplies at its border bridges, with Maduro describing Guaido’s gambit as part of a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow him. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

The Latest on Venezuela's political crisis (all times local):

11:40 a.m.

Several hundred supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have gathered in a Caracas plaza, heeding a call from the self-declared interim president to turn out for his expected return to Venezuela.

More demonstrators on Monday were walking toward the plaza in the Las Mercedes district of the Venezuelan capital. Some carried national flags.

The crowd initially appeared smaller than those of previous opposition rallies, which have drawn tens of thousands of people.

Guaido says the goal of his return is to intensify pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to resign so that a transitional government can take over and prepare Venezuela for free and fair elections. Maduro says he is the target of a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow him.

Guaido on Monday morning tweeted that he was on his way home, though he did not reveal his exact whereabouts.

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11 a.m.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido says he's his way home.

Guaido tweeted Monday that he's heading back to Venezuela, though details about his exact whereabouts remained a mystery ahead of planned anti-government protests.

The leader of the National Assembly has declared himself interim president of Venezuela. He says the goal of his return is to intensify internal pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro. In the last week, Guaido visited several Latin American countries that support his campaign against Maduro, who was re-elected last year in a vote that the opposition and dozens of foreign nations say was invalid.