OSLO.- After hours of waiting and speculation about her arrival in Norway, Venezuela’s opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Corina Machadowent out onto the balcony at dawn on Thursday (local time). Grand Hotel To Greet the crowds that cheered her in the streets. Shocked, she went to the door of the bar and broke security protocol: she climbed over the fences, hugged people and thanked them for being there.
The plane carrying Machado arrived in Norway shortly after midnight, after a long journey that began on a secret boat to the Dutch island Curacao was able to escape Venezuela without being discovered by the Nicolás Maduro regime.
“Can I go out?” Machado can be heard saying something between “nervous” and “scared” to a security guard before appearing on the balcony, where she stands in full contact with the crowd for about two minutes. As soon as the Venezuelan opposition leader appears in the video, the people waiting for her start cheering her and calling for “freedom” as the anthem plays. Then, before he goes down to greet her, he tells her, “Wait for me there, I’ll be downstairs.”
After a long flight, she landed in Oslo and made her way to the hotel where she lives with her family, where she was supposed to go to greet the crowd waiting to welcome her. Although he didn’t make any speeches other than small messages of thanks, he made it a point to see those who had come to say hello after a year and a half in hiding.
He walked down a long, fenced corridor where people shouted affectionately at him. Corina Machado spent several minutes greeting people, blowing them kisses and thanking them for their support. “See you tomorrow,” he finally said to his followers and returned to the hotel. “The hug that all of Venezuela needs“Thank you,” was the only thing he said on his social networks as a message to his people.
Among the people who traveled to the opposition leader’s public appearance were journalists and exiled politicians such as Leopoldo López, Lilian Tintori and Antonio Ledezma, all of whom lived in Spain.
Meanwhile, Machado will offer a press conference this Thursdayas confirmed by the Norwegian government. The event marks his first open meeting with the media after months of hiding for security reasons and after arriving in Europe to accept the award.
This Wednesday, Corina Machado was unable to be present to accept the prize, as the Nobel Institute reported. Whoever received the medal and diploma and gave a speech on his behalf was Ana Corina Sosahis daughter. “Your Majesties, Royal Highnesses, distinguished members of the Nobel Committee, citizens of the world, my dear Venezuelans: I have come to tell you a story, the story of a people and their long journey towards freedom,” he said.
He also insisted that the The Venezuelan cause crosses borders: “Freedom is conquered every day…a people who choose freedom contributes to the well-being of all humanity.”
Ana Corina Sosa said that, equally moved He hadn’t seen his mother for two years: “I am incredibly grateful because most likely I will finally be able to hug him.”
During the ceremony, the auditorium erupted in applause when Joergen Watne Frydnes, president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced that Machado would be traveling to Norway. Citing figures such as Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, the official stressed the “moral purity” necessary to sustain a democratic struggle against a dictatorship.
The Latin American participants also included the presidents Javier Milei (Argentina), Santiago Pena (Paraguay), Daniel Noboa (Ecuador) and José Raúl Mulino (Panama) and Edmundo González Urrutia. Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar and former Colombian President Iván Duque also traveled.
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