Credit: Reuters / María Corina Machado via Instagram
Venezuela’s opposition leader slipped out of the country in disguise and appeared in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Maria Corina Machado, a pro-democracy activist, stepped onto the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel shortly before 2.30am on Thursday after spending more than a year in hiding in Caracas.
The 58-year-old was smuggled out of Venezuela with help from the US in defiance of a ⁠decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country, and after spending more than a year in hiding.
Wearing a wig and disguise, Ms Machado evaded 10 military checkpoints before boarding a small fishing boat across the Caribbean to the neighbouring island of Curaçao in a 10-hour operation, the Wall Street Journal reported.
She departed Curaçao on a private plane for Norway, stopping to refuel in Bangor, Maine, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Her escape had been meticulously planned over two months and her team reached out to the White House to ensure that the boat in which she was travelling was not targeted by US air strikes. Some 20 vessels leaving Venezuela have been hit in the last three months, killing 80 people.
“We co-ordinated that she was going to leave by a specific area so that they would not blow up the boat,” said the person close to the operation.
At the time of Ms Machado’s crossing in Curaçao, two US Navy F-18s flew into the Gulf of Venezuela, where they spent 40 minutes flying in tight circles near her route, flight tracking data show. It was the closest incursion by US planes in Venezuelan airspace since tensions rose in September.
Speaking in Oslo, Ms Machado described the joy of reuniting with her children – who live in exile – for the first time in two years.
“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she told the BBC. “Suddenly, in the matter of a few hours, I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.”
Her escape was so guarded that the Nobel Institute said it did not know where she was when the prize ceremony began in Oslo on Wednesday.
Ms Machado greeted dozens of people from the balcony of the hotel where Nobel laureates traditionally stay. She waved and sang the national anthem along with the crowd, who flew Venezuelan flags and filmed her with their mobile phones.
Maria Corina Machado stepped out on to the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel at just before 2.30am local time to greet the crowd – Odd Andersen/AFP
Later, Ms Machado came down to the street and climbed over crowd barriers to hug and shake hands with people who had gathered in the cold for a chance to see her.
Diana Luna, a Mexican-German woman in the said, said: “After all these months hiding, with her life in danger, seeing her safe among the Venezuelan diaspora is both reassuring and energising.
“It is also a way for the Venezuelan cause to stay alive and to put more pressure on the regime.”
Ms Machado arrived in Oslo just a few hours too late to collect the Nobel Prize herself.
Instead, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, her daughter, accepted the award in her name and delivered a speech written by her mother in which she said democracies must be prepared to fight for freedom in order to survive.
Credit: Reuters
In her speech, Ms Machado said that the prize held profound significance, not only for her country but for the world.
“It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace,” she said via her daughter. “And more than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom.”
A source, who had been briefed by Ms Machado’s camp, said her escape from the Venezuelan coast was handled by her security staff.
When she arrived in Curaçao at 3pm on Tuesday, she was met by a private contractor, who was supplied by the Trump administration and specialises in extractions, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ms Machado’s travel to Curaçao.
Ms Machado came down to the street and climbed over crowd barriers to hug and shake hands with people – Odd Andersen/AFP
Speaking at her hotel early on Thursday, Ms Machado said she planned to return to Venezuela despite the risks she faced.
“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC.
Ms Machado later said she did not know when she would return but said she would do so to “end with this tyranny very soon and have a free Venezuela”.
“I came to receive the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people and I will take it back to Venezuela at the correct moment,” the main opponent to Nicolas Maduro told reporters as she left the Norwegian parliament on Thursday morning.
A large portrait of a smiling Ms Machado hung in the Oslo City Hall to represent her at the ceremony. The audience cheered and clapped when Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said during his speech that Ms Machado would be coming to Oslo.
Ms Machado waves to supporters as she walks towards the Parliament for a visit in Oslo – Odd Andersen/AFP
She will address the Norwegian parliament later on Thursday.
Evoking previous laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, Mr Frydnes said fighters for democracy were expected “to pursue their aims with a moral purity their opponents never display”.
“This is unrealistic. It is unfair,” he said.
“No democracy operates in ideal circumstances. Activist leaders must confront and resolve dilemmas that we onlookers are free to ignore. People living under the dictatorship often have to choose between the difficult and the impossible.”
In 2024, Ms Machado was barred from running in the presidential election, despite having won the opposition’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.
The electoral authority and top court declared Nicolas Maduro the winner, but international observers and the opposition say their candidate won and the opposition has published ballot box-level tallies as evidence of its victory.
Ms Machado during a campaign rally of presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, in Barinas, Venezuela, in 2024 – Juan Barreto/AFP
“Freedom is ​a choice that must be renewed each day, measured by our willingness and our courage to defend it. For this reason, the cause of Venezuela transcends our borders,” Ms Machado said in her prepared speech.
“A people who choose freedom contribute not only to themselves, but to humanity.”
Mr Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has said Donald Trump, the US president, is trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and that Venezuelan citizens and armed forces will resist any such attempt.
When the announcement was made in October that Ms Machado had won the Nobel Peace Prize, she dedicated it in part to Mr Trump, who has said he deserved the honour. She has aligned herself with hawks close to Mr Trump who argue that Mr 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 Democrats and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.
