Nobel Peace Prize winner reaches Norway after daring escape From Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado appeared in downtown Oslo in the early hours of Thursday morning after a high-risk escape from Venezuela that involved disguises, a wooden fishing boat and a private jet, according to a detailed account in The Wall Street Journal.

Machado, 58, surfaced on the balcony of Oslo’s historic Grand Hotel around 2:30 a.m. local time Thursday, greeting cheering supporters just hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf because she had missed the official ceremony. The Nobel Committee previously cited her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” against President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government.

Why It Matters

Machado is the most prominent figure in Venezuela’s fractured opposition and the leader of the party that won a disputed 2024 presidential election with 67 percent of the vote, according to international allies.

Maduro’s government claimed victory instead, triggering a crackdown of arrests, raids and intimidation that drove Machado into hiding and deepened the country’s isolation.

Her sudden appearance in Norway escalates an already tense standoff between Maduro and President Donald Trump, whose administration has deployed the largest U.S. naval presence in the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis and carried out lethal strikes on boats it says were trafficking drugs.

The White House accuses Maduro of overseeing powerful drug cartels.

Machado’s Nobel win has sharpened Venezuela’s political polarization, with Maduro branding her a “demonic witch” and denouncing the prize as foreign meddling, even as foreign governments rally behind her call for a transition to democracy.

What To Know

According to the Wall Street Journal, Machado began her escape on Monday afternoon from a suburb of Caracas where she had been hiding for about a year. Disguised with a wig and accompanied by two helpers, she spent roughly 10 hours traveling by road to a coastal fishing village, passing through 10 military checkpoints without being detained.

After resting briefly at the coast, Machado and her companions boarded a small wooden fishing skiff around 5 a.m. for a dangerous crossing of the Caribbean Sea to Curaçao, battling strong winds and rough seas that slowed their progress, the Journal reported. The escape network, which has helped others flee Venezuela, said it alerted the U.S. military before the boat set out to avoid it being mistaken for a target during recent American airstrikes on vessels in the area.

People familiar with the operation said that the Trump administration was aware of the escape bid, though U.S. officials denied that the military was directly coordinating with the group. Around the time of the crossing, U.S. Navy F-18 fighter jets flew in tight circles near the route from Venezuela’s coast to Curaçao, according to flight-tracking data.

Machado arrived in Curaçao around 3 p.m. Tuesday, where she was met by a private security contractor described as specializing in extractions and “supplied by the Trump administration,” the Journal reported.

Exhausted, she checked into a hotel overnight before boarding an executive jet provided by an associate in Miami. The plane flew from Curaçao to Oslo with a refueling stop in Bangor, Maine, according to the same account.

Before boarding, Machado recorded a brief audio message thanking “so many people…[who] risked their lives” to get her out of Venezuela. In a separate audio published by the Nobel Peace Prize committee on Wednesday, she confirmed she had left Venezuela and was traveling to Oslo to join the prize festivities.

Despite that, the Nobel Institute told Norwegian media it did not know her whereabouts as the award ceremony began. At the event, Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes described Machado’s journey as taking place “in a situation of extreme danger.”

Because Machado did not arrive in time, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa accepted the Peace Prize on Wednesday, telling the Oslo audience, “She will be back in Venezuela very soon.”

Outside the Grand Hotel hours later, supporters chanted “¡Valiente!” (“brave”) and sang the Venezuelan national anthem as Machado waved from a balcony, then climbed over a metal barrier to embrace people in the crowd.