Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures as she addresses supporters at a protest ahead of the Friday inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term, in Caracas, Venezuela January 9, 2025. (photo credit: REUTERS/Gaby Oraa/File Photo) via TJP
Machado, who is now in Oslo, Norway, to join the festivities around the Nobel Prize ceremony, told journalists that she “had support from the United States government.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has reportedly fled Venezuela with the help of the United States and collaborators inside her country, according to a Thursday report by The New York Times.
Machado, who is now in Oslo, Norway, to join the festivities around the Nobel Prize ceremony, told journalists that she “had support from the United States government.”
The Trump administration, which has recently started taking more aggressive policy steps against Venezuela’s government and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, didn’t comment on Machado’s statements.
Machado also refused to comment on how she escaped from Venezuela, arguing that she didn’t want to put her collaborators in danger.
Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, assured the people that the Maduro government knew Machado’s whereabouts the whole time she was in the country.
He also had previously stated that Machado would be treated as a fugitive if she left the country.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store meets Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado during her visit to the Storting, in Oslo, Norway December 11, 2025. (credit: NTB/Stian Lysberg Solum via REUTERS ) via TJP
Tensions after elections in Venezuela
Machado had gone into hiding after last year’s presidential election, the results of which were highly disputed by international observers.
According to the observers, the Machado-backed candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the elections. Despite that, Maduro declared himself the winner of the election and started a political persecution of his opponents.
González Urrutia had to flee to Spain after the elections, where he received political asylum, while Machado stayed hidden in Venezuela until recently, when she fled to receive the Nobel Prize.
They appeared together again on Friday, when González Urrutia uploaded a picture of them together with the caption: “We are completely coordinated on the upcoming challenges. It’s easy to work on a common objective, our people’s freedom.”
During this time, tensions rose between the US and Maduro’s government. US President Donald Trump ordered a series of strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean coasts of Venezuela, while a strike force that includes the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
The latest development in this scenario was the seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker that was on its way to Cuba.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” said Trump, according to Reuters. – TJP
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