Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has emerged from months in hiding to reach Oslo, defying a travel ban and threats from the Maduro regime that she would be labeled a fugitive.
Machado appeared on a hotel balcony early Thursday, waving to cheering supporters in her first public sighting since January, after missing the official ceremony where her daughter accepted the prize on her behalf.
Peace Prize winner Machado appears in Norway after dramatic escape from Venezuela https://t.co/Adw62e8G5y pic.twitter.com/ftGU3H12WJ
— The Independent (@Independent) December 11, 2025
Her high-stakes journey out of Venezuela, described by the Nobel Committee as being in a “situation of extreme danger” reportedly involved a sophisticated, two-month plan where she wore a disguise, navigated ten military checkpoints, and traveled by fishing skiff across the Caribbean to the island of Curaçao, before flying to Norway with support from the US government.
The Nobel laureate, who won the prize for her struggle against dictatorship, was emotional, stating she was finally able to hug her children whom she had not seen in two years.
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Despite the risk of arrest, Machado vowed to return home, telling the BBC, “I know exactly the risks I’m taking” but that she believes her role today is to be in Oslo on behalf of the Venezuelan cause.
