Venezuelan Nobel winner Machado leaves Norway for unknown destination

OSLO - Nobel Laureate Maria Corina Machado
has left Norway, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told Bloomberg on Dec 17. 

Ms Machado’s whereabouts are currently unknown, and Mr Store provided no further details. Spokeswoman Magalli Meda said by text message that Ms Machado “is taking care of her health” and that she needs some time off. 

The Venezuelan democracy activist emerged from hiding in her home country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo last week, but arrived too late for the ceremony, where her daughter accepted the prize on her behalf.

Ms Machado, 58, fractured her spine after a perilous journey
in bad weather.

She has vowed to return to Venezuela but was expected to visit other European countries, and potentially the US, before doing so.

Earlier this week, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro dismissed Ms Machado’s injuries on state television.

“She says she has a broken vertebra. What’s broken is her brain, and her soul,” Mr Maduro said on the evening of Dec 15. “She’s a demon.”

The US has been tightening the screws on Mr Maduro’s regime, deploying thousands of troops, several warships and an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean Sea off Venezuela as well as launching strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats that have killed almost 100 people.

On Dec 16, US President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going into and leaving Venezuela, an escalation of pressure on mR Maduro with the potential to further destabilie sthe country in the short term.

Venezuela condemned the latest measures as a “reckless and serious” threat.

Mr Maduro has refrained from issuing an arrest warrant against Ms Machado, even as he has implicated her in several plots against him and some of his top officials. While she was in Oslo, Mr Trump warned that he “wouldn’t be happy” if the Maduro regime were to detain Ms Machado upon her return. 

The opposition leader had been in hiding in Venezuela since August 2024, saying she feared for her life after the movement she led presented evidence that her stand-in candidate in the 2024 election defeated Mr Maduro by a landslide.

The socialist ruler instead declared himself the winner and launched a repression campaign against his critics.

Prior to her trip to Oslo, Ms Machado last emerged from hiding to attend a rally in early January. On that occasion, she was briefly detained by Mr Maduro’s forces. BLOOMBERG