Nobel winner Machado secretly left Venezuela and hit bad weather

Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado secretly left Venezuela in a bid to get to Oslo in time to accept her award but was forced to miss the ceremony because bad weather delayed her journey, a person familiar with the matter said.

Machado got out of Venezuela on Tuesday with help from members of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Some US officials see that as a sign of their willingness to cooperate if Maduro were to leave power.

Machado, who has been in hiding for more than a year, left Venezuela by boat to Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island about 40 miles away, the person said. The island is also home to a small US military base.

“There are many things we had to go through, and so many people who risked their lives so that I could get to Oslo,” Machado said in a voice message recorded as she boarded a plane en route to the Norwegian capital, and posted on the Nobel website Wednesday.

“I am very grateful to them,” she said. “And this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people.”

Her journey was delayed for several hours due to bad weather and rough seas, according to the person. Forced to miss the ceremony, her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award in her place. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported some of the details of her escape.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Speculation has swirled for days over Machado’s movements and whether she’d make the trip to Norway. It was only with her message – posted online as the ceremony began – that she confirmed she was on her way to Oslo, thanking the Norwegian Nobel Committee “for this immense recognition of our people’s struggle for democracy and freedom.”

Machado’s decision to leave Venezuela carries both opportunity and risk for her and the Maduro regime. Her supporters believe a successful return to Venezuela after the Nobel ceremony could strengthen her domestic standing. Others warn that a defiant Maduro could block her re-entry and force her into exile, a fate that has already weakened previous opposition leaders.

Machado was aided by the Trump administration and also had help from some members of Maduro’s regime, the person said.

The Venezuelan government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment and is likely to dispute that version of events, since it has long claimed to know her location.

The Nobel Institute said earlier Wednesday that Machado had “done everything in her power to come to the ceremony,” and was undertaking “a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”

“We are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo,” it said.

In hiding

Machado, the opposition’s most popular figure, had been in hiding since August 2024. She went underground after Maduro said that she and Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate in the election the previous month, “should be behind bars.”

But the Venezuelan government has refrained from issuing an arrest warrant against Machado despite alleging her involvement in several plots against Maduro and his officials. More recently, officials accused Machado of plotting to plant explosives in public places, including the country’s capital.

The Nobel Committee, in awarding the peace prize to Machado, cited “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

As well as family members, Machado was represented at Wednesday’s ceremony by the leaders of Argentina (President Milei), Ecuador (Daniel Noboa), Paraguay (Santiago Peña) and Panama (José Raúl Molino).

Maduro, who became president after the death of his predecessor and patron Hugo Chávez in 2013, is widely considered to have stolen the election in July 2024 from González Urrutia, who records showed won the most votes.

González Urrutia became a stand-in for Machado after she was barred from the election despite being the overwhelming winner of an opposition primary the previous year. He was present at the Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo.

Yet Machado is seen by some as condoning military conflict to help achieve her ends of a transition from Maduro’s autocratic rule. She has voiced support for the US military buildup in the Caribbean and President Donald Trump’s threats of force to remove Maduro.

In an unusually political speech, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, who chairs the Norwegian Nobel Committee, criticised those who find fault with the opposition movement’s pursuit of democracy.

“If you only support people who share your political views, you have understood neither freedom nor democracy,” he said, going on to call on Maduro to “accept the results and leave power.”

Machado’s international affairs coordinator, Pedro Urruchurtu, acknowledged the controversy, telling a Human Rights Foundation event in Oslo on Tuesday that it was worth allying with Trump to achieve the goal of a transition to the forces of democracy after the long years of struggle since Chávez came to power in 1999.

“I am sure this is the best opportunity we have had in 26 years to dismantle this regime,” Urruchurtu said.

In her recording, Machado said she was aware that “hundreds of Venezuelans from different parts of the world” were in Oslo for the occasion, as are her family, team, and colleagues.

“Soon, when I arrive, I will be able to hug my family and my children, whom I haven’t seen in two years, and so many Venezuelans and Norwegians who I know share our efforts,” she said.