{"id":310102,"date":"2025-12-11T04:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310102\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T04:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:11:06","slug":"venezuelan-nobel-peace-prize-winner-greets-crowds-in-oslo-after-nearly-a-year-in-hiding-maria-corina-machado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310102\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan Nobel peace prize winner greets crowds in Oslo after nearly a year in hiding | Mar\u00eda Corina Machado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela\u2019s best-known opposition leader, the Nobel peace prize winner Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a>, has made a dramatic appearance in Norway after slipping out of her authoritarian homeland by boat.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan politician and pro-democracy activist stepped out on to the balcony of Oslo\u2019s iconic Grand Hotel at just before 2.30am local time, after spending the past 11 months in hiding in Venezuela\u2019s capital, Caracas.<\/p>\n

Dozens of supporters chanted \u201cCourageous!\u201d and \u201cFreedom!\u201d in front of the hotel and sang the Venezuelan national anthem as she appeared. \u201cGlory to the brave nation, which shook off the yoke\u200b!\u201d they cried out.<\/p>\n

It was Machado\u2019s first public appearance in almost a year, having been forced into hiding in Venezuela<\/a> by the country\u2019s dictator, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, after he was accused of stealing the July 2024 presidential election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minutes after appearing on the balcony outside the hotel\u2019s storied Nobel suite, the 58-year-old conservative came down on to the street and climbed over metal barricades to embrace supporters who had gathered outside the 19th-century building\u2019s glimmering facade in the early hours of Thursday.<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, on Wednesday, the Nobel laureate\u2019s 34-year-old daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the Nobel peace prize on her mother\u2019s behalf<\/a> after she failed to arrive in Oslo in time for the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Speaking at that event, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, J\u00f8rgen Watne Frydnes, urged Maduro to step down, having lost last year\u2019s presidential election to Machado\u2019s ally, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez. \u201cLet a new age dawn,\u201d Frydnes said, hailing Machado\u2019s \u201cstruggle to achieve a peaceful and just transition from dictatorship to democracy\u201d in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Numerous past Nobel laureates have been unable to collect their awards in Oslo because of the political situation in their home countries, among them the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo<\/a>, the Burmese politician and activist Aung San Suu Kyi and the Polish unionist and future president Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Corina Machado greets supporters gathered outside the Grand Hotel in Oslo on Thursday. Photograph: Odd Andersen\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Machado was reportedly delayed by bad weather as she attempted to escape Venezuela the previous day, by secretly taking a boat towards the Caribbean island of Cura\u00e7ao.<\/p>\n

Members of Maduro\u2019s regime denounced Machado\u2019s award, with the vice-president, \u200bDelcy Rodr\u00edguez, describing the Nobel ceremony as \u201ca total failure\u201d that her adversary had failed to attend. \u201cThey say she was scared,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez added, claiming the 2025 Nobel prize was \u201cstained with blood\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a rally in Caracas, Maduro urged the Trump administration \u2013 which has spent recent months trying to topple his administration \u2013 to cease its \u201cillegal and brutal interventionism\u201d. He said citizens should be ready \u201cto smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Machado appears well placed to lead Venezuela if Trump succeeds in forcing Maduro from power. But his downfall is far from certain. Maduro rode out Trump\u2019s 2019 \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign to topple him with a cocktail of sanctions and threats. Some observers suspect the Venezuelan strongman will survive Trump\u2019s latest intervention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s best-known opposition leader, the Nobel peace prize winner Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, has made a dramatic appearance in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-310102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}