Caracas mayor in country after escaping house arrest

"My voice is joining a chorus of Venezuelans who have asked for help from Colombia," Ledezma told reporters after arriving in the Colombian border town of Cucuta.

He said his journey was worthy of a film, taking him past more than two dozen Venezuelan police and national guard positions before he was able to reach Colombia.

"It is time to step aside and allow a transitional government, so that Maduro cannot continue torturing the people of Venezuela," he said. "Maduro is starving the people of Venezuela."

Earlier, Colombia's migration department said Ledezma had "entered Colombian territory by land, over the Simon Bolivar international bridge."

The 62-year-old lawyer was arrested and jailed in February 2015 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the president. He had been under house arrest following surgery.

He was elected Caracas mayor in 2009 and re-elected in 2013.

Ledezma is a member of the Democratic Action opposition party, which was the biggest party in Venezuela before the arrival into power of Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1999.

He told Venezuelans that it was not a time to lose faith in their struggle, "you have to keep flying the flag which symbolizes the dignity of a people who have lost food, who have lost their cash and who don't have even have the money buy a sandwich."