Oslo — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado vowed to return her Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuela “at the correct moment” after slipping out of the country under a decade-old travel ban and arriving in Norway hours after Friday’s ceremony.
Machado, 58, reached Oslo early Saturday following a clandestine journey that her camp says began by boat from Venezuela to Curaçao and continued by private plane to Norway. She missed the prize ceremony, where her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award and delivered a speech in her name urging democracies to defend freedom.
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“I came to receive the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people and I will take it back to Venezuela at the correct moment,” Machado told reporters at Norway’s parliament, declining to specify when she would return. She said she plans to go back despite the risks after more than 16 months in hiding. “Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC.
Outside Oslo’s Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay, Machado greeted supporters from a balcony as dozens in the Venezuelan diaspora waved flags, sang the national anthem and filmed on their phones. She later climbed over crowd barriers to hug well-wishers in subzero temperatures.
Her arrival followed a year of mounting pressure inside Venezuela. Machado, who won the opposition’s 2024 presidential primary by a landslide, was barred from appearing on the ballot and went into hiding in August as authorities widened arrests of opposition figures. The national electoral authority and top court declared President Nicolás Maduro the election winner, a result the opposition disputes. It has released precinct-level tallies it says show its candidate won; international observers and foreign governments have raised concerns about the vote.
In her prepared Nobel remarks, read by her daughter, Machado said the award held “profound significance” for Venezuela and beyond. “It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace,” she said, adding: “To have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom.”
During Friday’s ceremony, Norwegian Nobel Committee head Joergen Watne Frydnes invoked past laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa while warning against expecting “moral purity” from those resisting authoritarian rule. “No democracy operates in ideal circumstances,” he said, adding that people under dictatorship must often choose “between the difficult and the impossible.”
A person familiar with Machado’s travel, who was briefed by her team, said her security staff handled the escape from Venezuela’s coast. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her transit through Curaçao, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Speaking in Oslo, Machado accused Maduro’s government of entrenching itself with funds from illicit markets. “This has turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas,” she said, calling for efforts to cut flows from drug, oil and arms trafficking and human smuggling. Venezuela’s Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tensions between Caracas and Washington have risen in recent months. The Trump administration has announced more than 20 strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the region, and President Donald Trump said Friday the United States seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast. Caracas condemned the move as “international piracy” and “blatant theft.” Maduro has long denied links to criminal activity and accuses the U.S. of seeking regime change to control Venezuela’s oil.
Machado previously dedicated part of her Nobel to Trump and on Saturday said his policies had been “decisive” in weakening Maduro. She insisted the government’s end was inevitable and said the opposition is preparing for a transition. “I’m going back to Venezuela regardless of when Maduro goes out,” she said, without detailing her timeline.
Machado, an industrial engineer by training, said the past year had been marked by isolation. “For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she told the BBC, describing the Oslo reunion with loved ones as a sudden, emotional release. “We cried and prayed together.”
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
