The new Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado arrived in Oslo hours after the official award ceremony. The Venezuelan opposition leader appeared on a balcony of the Grand Hotel in the Norwegian capital on Thursday night, as was seen on television. Afterwards, the opponent of the authoritarian head of state Nicolás Maduro greeted her supporters on the street below. According to media reports, she was first taken by boat from Venezuela to the Caribbean island of Curaçao and then flown to Norway via the USA on a private plane.
Machado was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize in absentia on Wednesday “for her tireless commitment to the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her fight for a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Since she couldn’t make it to the ceremony on time, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado accepted the award on her behalf at Oslo City Hall.
Driving force of the opposition
Machado is the main representative of the Venezuelan opposition. Last year she was the driving force behind the campaign of the opposition candidate Edmundo González, who won the presidential election according to government opponents and numerous third countries. Despite the allegations of fraud, the authoritarian President Maduro was declared the winner. González then went into exile in Spain. Numerous other opposition members have long since fled abroad.
In Venezuela, Machado is being investigated for, among other things, treason. Before her trip to Oslo, she had been living largely underground for over a year. Prosecutors had said they would consider Machado a fugitive if she left the country. If she returns to Venezuela, she could be arrested. It would also be conceivable that she would be refused entry into her home country.
