“I have hope that Venezuela will be free again.” These were some of the first words that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado uttered during her official agenda last June in Oslo, just hours after reappearing last June in Norway after spending 16 months in hiding. At a joint news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner said he would continue his fight against Nicolas Maduro’s government and presented a slate to lead his country’s democracy promotion efforts.
Machado was cautious in that appearance and in a second round of reporting that also avoided revealing unknowns on three key questions: how he left his country; his possible candidacy for the presidency of Venezuela and whether he supports a military intervention by the United States to oust Maduro. Without explicitly speaking about this incursion, Machado only took to task the “decisive actions” of President Donald Trump, without saying that the Venezuelan opposition “could not get to the point where it is today”. Before, he continued: “(Maduro) could do what he wanted; the cost was zero.”
Concerning his possible return to Venezuela, the opponent limited himself to affirming that his return will take place “when conditions are favorable” for his security and disconnected this return “from the continuity of the regime”. He also gave extensive details of how he left Venezuela – he confirmed that he had help from Washington to travel by boat from Venezuela to Curaçao and from there to Oslo – seeking refuge in the safety of “men and women who risked their lives” to help them leave their country. When asked by a journalist if he considered aspiring to the presidency of Venezuela, he responded with a phrase alternating between Spanish and English: “One day at a time (something like ‘Let’s take it step by step’) and ‘the first is the first,’ in a likely allusion to the change in the political system in Venezuela.”
Arriving at dawn in the Norwegian capital, the opponent began to thank the Norwegian Committee for the reward. “I feel very honored and grateful to the Nobel Committee for this recognition in the Venezuelan community, to this great movement of millions of people who conform to it,” commented Machado, visibly moved, during his first appearance before the media. “It is also a recognition of democracy,” he continued. The 58-year-old opposition leader expressed her desire to see her country become a “beacon of hope” and called for support from the international community to promote a peaceful transition of power. “Let us be the messenger of the world,” he declared behind his second press wheel, offered in the company of the president of the Norwegian Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes.
During his two appearances, packed with journalists, Machado reiterated several messages. One is that he doesn’t believe his country’s authorities know where he is. “I don’t think they were better than where I was,” he said after challenging the siege imposed by Chavismo. Machado has been in hiding since August 2024, just weeks after Venezuela’s last presidential elections, in which he was unable to run as a candidate.
In the first of repeated questions from journalists about support for a US military intervention against the Chavista regime – which Machado has repeatedly supported – amid tensions due to the deployment ordered by the Donald Trump administration against the Venezuelan coast, the opponent evaded the challenge by asserting that “Venezuela is invaded by Russian agents, Hezbolá and criminal gangs”.
An “extraordinary” moment
“He couldn’t sleep like that,” also explained the opposition leader, who, throughout her official agenda – this afternoon had planned several private events – had appeared exultant. “It was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life,” Machado added of reuniting with her three children in Oslo. Amid the uncertainty and lack of information about her whereabouts, Ana Corina Sosa, her daughter, came to the Nobel Prize to receive the prize in her representation, in one of the most moving moments of the ceremony.
“He came to receive the award on behalf of the Venezuelan village and brought it back to Venezuela at the appropriate time,” he told the media. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is recognition, he insisted, “for the 30 million Venezuelans”.
The opposition leader assured that she and her collaborators were using means to circumvent the surveillance of Maduro’s government and return to Venezuelan territory, but “of course she will not say when.” Luego declared that “Venezuela will be free.”
After a trip against all odds, he took her from Venezuela to the island of Curazao by boat and then by plane to Oslo via the United States, according to what became known in recent hours, Machado insisted that he return. “I want to thank the men and women who took their own lives so that I could be here today,” the opposition leader said. “It was a great experience, but I think it was worth it,” he commented, while promising that later he would give more details about his unusual trip.
“In Venezuela we have an authoritarian regime that is waging a war against its citizens,” the Norwegian prime minister said. “This year’s Nobel Prize has enormous significance,” added Store, affirming the role of democracies as a determining factor in achieving peace, on the ground in this Caribbean country, in a global context where democratic regimes are increasingly under threat.
Machado began his activities in the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, mid-morning. He was received by the president of the legislative body, worker Masud Gharahkhani; The book of distinguished visitors was signed and a meeting with parliamentarians took place. Then he held a half-hour meeting before the joint appearance with the Norwegian representative.
“We had an excellent conversation,” Machado wrote of his meeting with the president, during which he requested support from the Norwegian government to promote the democratic cause in Venezuela. “We must raise our voices and reduce the resources that fuel repression,” he said. Store assured that Norway would support efforts to promote democracy and the consolidation of the rule of law in this South American country. “We want this change to happen,” the president said.
After several days of uncertainty and amid enormous anticipation, the arrival of the Venezuelan opposition leader arrived in the Norwegian capital. It paralyzed the streets of the city center, had a considerable impact on the political and media agenda and aroused unusual expectations in recent hours. Machado’s reappearance has encouraged millions of Venezuelans who believe in him that real change is possible in the country. “Oslo, here I am,” he wrote on his Twitter account, his first message from Norwegian territory.
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