Oslo

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado has declared that authorities in her home country would have attempted everything possible to prevent her journey to Norway, after she emerged publicly for the first time in nearly a year.

Machado greeted supporters from an Oslo hotel balcony in the early hours of Thursday following a high-risk exit from Venezuela, where she had been in hiding since January.

The journey, which purportedly included navigating 10 military checkpoints and crossing the Caribbean by fishing vessel, brought her to the Norwegian capital to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.

During a news conference at Norway’s parliament, the 58-year-old right-wing opposition figure delivered sharp criticism of President Nicolas Maduro’s administration, asserting that the government deploys national resources to suppress its population.

When questioned about an oil tanker seized by Washington on Wednesday, she argued this demonstrated how the regime operates. Asked whether she would support a United States invasion, Machado claimed Venezuela had already been invaded by Russian and Iranian agents alongside drug cartels.

“This has turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas,” she said, standing alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

“What sustains the regime is a very powerful and strongly funded repression system. Where do those funds come from? Well, from drug trafficking, from the black market of oil, from arms trafficking and from human trafficking. We need to cut those flows.”

The trip reunited her with family members she had not seen in almost two years, including her daughter, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf at Wednesday’s ceremony.

Aligned with Trump 

The political leader has welcomed international sanctions and US military intervention in Venezuela, a move her critics say harkens back to a dark past.

The US has a long history of interference in the region, particularly in the 1980s, when it propped up repressive right-wing governments through coups, and funded paramilitary groups across Latin America that were responsible for mass killings, forced disappearances and other grave human rights abuses.

Venezuelan authorities cited Machado’s support for sanctions and US intervention when they barred her from running for office in last year’s presidential election, where she had intended to challenge Maduro. Machado has accused Venezuela’s president of stealing the July 2024 election, which was criticised by international observers.

Praising the Trump administration’s approach, Machado said the president’s actions had been “decisive to reach the point where we are right now, in which the regime is weaker than ever.”

She insisted she would return home but did not say when. “I’m going back to Venezuela regardless of when Maduro goes out. He’s going out, but the moment will be determined by when I’m finished doing the things that I came out to do,” she told reporters.

Her escape comes as tensions between Washington and Caracas have intensified sharply. The Trump administration has positioned major naval forces in the Caribbean and conducted strikes against alleged drug vessels since September. The US seized what Trump called a “very large” oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, on Wednesday.

Machado has aligned herself with right-wing hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to US national security, despite doubts raised by the US intelligence community.

The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast, killing more than 80 people.

Human rights groups, some US Democrats, and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Machado’s two-month escape operation involved wearing a disguise and departing from a coastal fishing village on a wooden boat bound for Curacao before boarding a private aircraft to Norway.

US forces were alerted to avoid striking the vessel, the WSJ reported, as they had one with similar boats in recent months. Machado confirmed receiving assistance from Washington during her escape.

Maduro, in power since 2013 following the death of Hugo Chavez, says Trump is pushing for regime change in the country to access Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. He has pledged to resist such attempts.

A United Nations report released on Thursday accused Venezuela’s security forces of crimes against humanity over more than a decade.

Venezuelan Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello said Machado left the country “without drama” but provided no details.

Dec. 10 (UPI) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado did not attend a ceremony in Oslo to receive her award on Wednesday as the Venezuelan opposition leader was in hiding from the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, somewhere in the country.

The Norwegian committee said in a news release that Machado had done everything possible to make what it said would have been a very risky journey, but confirmed she was safe and appeared to suggest her imminent arrival in Norway.

“Machado has done everything in her power to come to the ceremony today. A journey in a situation of extreme danger. Although she will not be able to reach the ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo,” the statement read.

The news followed days of contradictory statements over whether Machado, who has been in hiding since disputed elections in July 2024, would make it to Oslo. Machado, who has been repeatedly threatened with arrest by Venezuelan authorities has not appeared in public since January.

Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, received the diploma and medal on her behalf at the ceremony at City Hall in the Norwegian capital.

The committee shared a recording of a phone call with Machado in which she confirmed she would not attend to receive her prize, which was awarded in recognition “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

“I want to thank the Norwegian Nobel committee for this immense recognition to the fight of our people for democracy and freedom. We feel very emotional and very honoured, and that’s why I’m very sad and very sorry to tell you that I won’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony, but I will be in Oslo and on my way to Oslo right now.

“I know that there are hundreds of Venezuelans from different parts of the world that were able to reach your city, that are right now in Oslo, as well as my family, my team, so many colleagues. Since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them.”

Machado, who ran for president in 2011 and attemped to run last year, has been a leader of the country’s democratic movement more than 20 years, opposing and holding to account the administration of Hugo Chavez, first, and then the authoritarian rule of Maduro.

She was elected to the National Assembly in 2010 but removed in 2014 after being accused of conspiring with other critics and the United States to assassinate Maduro. She denies the charges which she says were based on fabricated evidence.

In October 2023, she won a primary to run against Maduro in last summer’s election, to which the Maduro government responded by banning her from politics for 15 years. She was replaced on the ballot by Edmundo Gonzalez.

The results of the July 2024 were widely rejected by the opposition and internationally, including by Brazil, Colombia and the United States, which instead recognized Gonzalez as the real winner.

He fled the country in September in 2024 and was granted political asylum in Spain.

The build-up to the ceremony has been tinged with shadowy intrigue, after the Nobel institute earlier said Machado’s whereabouts were unknown.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will not receive the Nobel Peace Prize in person at an award ceremony in Oslo but she will be in the European city, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said.

Machado, 58, was due to receive the award on Wednesday at Oslo City Hall in the presence of Norway’s monarchs and Latin American leaders, including fellow right-wing politicians Argentinian President Javier Milei and Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa.

The opposition leader of the Vente Venezuela party was awarded the prize in October, with the Nobel committee praising Machado’s role in the country’s opposition movement and her “steadfast” support for democracy.

Machado, who holds many right-wing views, dedicated it in part to United States President Donald Trump, who has said he, himself deserved the honour and was infuriated that he did not.

“Although she will not be able to reach the ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that Machado is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo,” the institute stated.

She is expected to reach Oslo “sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning,” the institute’s director Kristian Berg Harpviken told the AFP news agency on Wednesday, shortly before the 1pm (12:00 GMT) ceremony, at which her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, is set to accept the award in her place.

“I will be in Oslo, I am on my way,” Machado stated in an audio recording released by the institute.

The announcement was part of a sequence of events more befitting of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, as the institute had earlier stated Machado’s whereabouts were unknown. A planned news conference a day earlier was also cancelled due to her absence.

Machado has a decade-long travel ban on her and has spent more than a year in hiding.

Alignment with right-wing hawks

The political leader has welcomed international sanctions and US military intervention in Venezuela, a move her critics say harkens back to a dark past.

The US has a long history of interference in the region, particularly in the 1980s when it propped up repressive right-wing governments through coups, and funded paramilitary groups across Latin America that were responsible for mass killings, forced disappearances and other grave human rights abuses.

Venezuelan authorities cited Machado’s support for sanctions and US intervention when they barred her from running for office in last year’s presidential election, where she had intended to challenge President Nicolas Maduro. Machado has accused Maduro of stealing the July 2024 election.

Shortly after her Nobel win in October, Machado also voiced support for Israel in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during its ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

Machado has previously pledged to move Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as Trump did with the US diplomatic presence during his first term in office, if her movement comes to power. This would be on par with other right-wing Latin American leaders who have taken pro-Israel stances, including Argentina’s Milei and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Machado has aligned herself with right-wing hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to US national security, despite doubts raised by the US intelligence community.

The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast.

Human rights groups, some US Democrats and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.

Maduro, in power since 2013 following the death of Hugo Chavez, says Trump is pushing for regime change in the country to access Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. He has pledged to resist such attempts.

Venezuela’s armed forces are planning to mount a guerrilla-style resistance in the event of a US air or ground attack, according to sources with knowledge of the efforts and planning documents seen by the Reuters news agency.