Venezuelan Opposition Leader Emerges From Hiding After Winning Nobel

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado emerged from nearly a year in hiding to greet supporters in Oslo on Thursday after she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

It was unclear how Machado managed to travel to Norway, or how she would return after Venezuela said it would consider her a fugitive if she left the country.

“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC. “I know exactly the risks I’m taking.”

“I’m going to be in the place where I’m most useful for our cause,” she added. “Until a short time ago, the place I thought I had to be was Venezuela; the place I believe I have to be today, on behalf of our cause, is Oslo.”

The Nobel Institute said Machado did “everything in her power to come to the ceremony”, undertaking a journey of “extreme danger”, but she ultimately arrived too late to collect her prize in person.

Her daughter accepted the award on her mother’s behalf, delivering a stinging rebuke of “state terrorism” under Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

In the middle of the night, Machado emerged on a balcony of the Grand Hotel, waving and blowing kisses to her supporters below. It was the first time she had been seen in public since January.

The jubilant crowd sang and shouted “libertad” (freedom) in response, according to AFP journalists.

On the ground, she climbed over metal barriers to get closer to her supporters, many of whom hugged her and presented her with rosaries.

Machado said she has missed much of her children’s lives while hiding, including graduations and weddings.

“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she said in the BBC interview. “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.”

Machado is due to address the world at a press conference at 0915 GMT on Thursday.

READ ALSO: Venezuela Acknowledges Death Of Detained Opposition Figure

The Nobel Institute awarded the peace prize to Machado for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

In her acceptance speech, the democracy campaigner urged her compatriots to keep fighting Maduro’s grip on power.

“What we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” she said in a speech delivered by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado.

Machado has accused Maduro of stealing Venezuela’s July 2024 election, from which she was banned — a claim backed by much of the international community.

The opposition claimed its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, won the election. He now lives in exile and was also in Oslo on Wednesday.

Machado has largely been in hiding since the election, last appearing publicly on January 9 in Caracas, where she protested Maduro’s inauguration for his third term.

The decision to leave Venezuela and join the Oslo festivities comes at both personal and political risk.

“She risks being arrested if she returns, even if the authorities have shown more restraint with her than with many others, because arresting her would have a very strong symbolic value,” said Benedicte Bull, a professor specialising in Latin America at the University of Oslo.

At the same time, Machado’s earlier refusal to leave Venezuela had boosted her political power and maintained her relevance.

“She is the undisputed leader of the opposition, but if she were to stay away in exile for a long time, I think that would change, and she would gradually lose political influence,” Bull said.

READ ALSO : Venezuela Acknowledges Death Of Detained Opposition Figure

Machado’s mother and three daughters, and some Latin American heads of state, including Argentine President Javier Milei, were at the prize-giving at Oslo’s City Hall.

In her acceptance speech, Machado denounced kidnappings and torture under Maduro’s tenure, calling them “crimes against humanity” and “state terrorism, deployed to bury the will of the people”.

Machado has been hailed for her fight for democracy, but also criticised for aligning herself with US President Donald Trump, to whom she has dedicated her Nobel.

The Oslo ceremony coincides with a large US military build-up in the Caribbean in recent weeks and deadly strikes on what Washington says are drug-smuggling boats.

Maduro, who came to power in 2013, insists the goal of the US operations — which Machado has said are justified — is to topple the government and seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.

AFP