Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado yesterday emerged from nearly a year in hiding to greet supporters in Oslo after she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
It was unclear how Machado traveled to Norway or how she would return after Venezuela said it would consider her a fugitive if she left the country.
“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC. “I know exactly the risks I’m taking.”
Photo: EPA
“I’m going to be in the place where I’m most useful for our cause,” she said.
“Until a short time ago, the place I thought I had to be was Venezuela, the place I believe I have to be today, on behalf of our cause, is Oslo,” she added.
The Nobel Institute said that Machado did “everything in her power to come to the ceremony,” undertaking a journey of “extreme danger,” but she ultimately arrived too late to collect her prize in person.
Machado later told reporters at a news conference outside the Norwegian parliament that she would do her “best” to return to Venezuela.
She thanked those who “risked their lives” to get her to Oslo.
Her daughter on Wednesday accepted the award on her mother’s behalf, delivering a stinging rebuke of “state terrorism” under Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In the middle of the night, Machado emerged on a balcony of the Grand Hotel, waving and blowing kisses to her supporters below. It was the first time she had been seen in public since January.
The jubilant crowd sang and shouted “libertad” (freedom) in response, journalists said.
On the ground, she climbed over metal barriers to get closer to her supporters, many of whom hugged her and presented her with rosaries.
Machado said she has missed much of her children’s lives while hiding, including graduations and weddings.
“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she said in the BBC interview. “Suddenly in the matter of a few hours I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.”
Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
She has accused Maduro of stealing Venezuela’s presidential election in July last year — from which she was banned — a claim backed by much of the international community.
Machado has largely been in hiding since then, last appearing publicly on Jan. 9 in Caracas, where she protested Maduro’s inauguration for his third term.
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