The clandestinity has ended for María Corina Machado. After more than a year in hiding for security reasons, the Venezuelan opposition leader, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, arrived in Oslo at midnight on Thursday. At around 2:30 in the morning, the leader, who had not left her country for 14 years, appeared on the balcony of the Grand Hotel and greeted the crowd that was waiting for her on the street. “Brave!”, cheered dozens of people with whom Machado sang the Venezuelan national anthem. A few minutes later, Machado, dressed in black, went down to the street surrounded by a strong security scheme to continue greeting and taking selfies with her supporters. “Maria, you did it!” they shouted at her.
The opposition leader will have her first official event in the Norwegian Parliament this Thursday, which includes a meeting and a press conference with the Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store. Highly anticipated and with an enormous symbolic load, Machado’s arrival in the Norwegian capital marks a milestone for the opposition to the regime of Nicolás Maduro and for millions of Venezuelans who have followed minute by minute every clue that has been made known in recent days about the whereabouts of the opposition leader. His departure from Venezuela also represents a challenge for the Chavista Government and raises new unknowns for the future at a critical moment in the country’s political history.
In the last 24 hours, the story about Machado’s journey to leave Venezuela and reach Norway has suffered an endless chain of unexpected twists. Early Wednesday morning, the Norwegian Nobel Institute announced that this year’s winner would not be present during the presentation at Oslo City Hall. About an hour before the gala, however, the institution stated in a statement that the Venezuelan opposition member had embarked “on a trip in a situation of extreme danger” and that “she had done everything possible to attend the ceremony.” “We are deeply happy to confirm that she is safe and will be with us,” he added. Just a few minutes later, a call was broadcast between the leader and the president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes.
“I will be in Oslo, I am on my way,” Machado assured in the telephone conversation. “I know that there are many Venezuelans who have been able to reach Oslo, as well as my family and my team,” the opposition leader continued. “As soon as I arrive, I will be able to hug my family and children, who I have not seen in two years, as well as so many Venezuelans and Norwegians who I know share our struggle and effort.”
In the midst of a sea of doubts and mixed emotions, it was the daughter of the winner, Ana Corina Sosa, who had to step forward, collect the award on her behalf and read her acceptance speech. “To our political prisoners, to the persecuted, to their families and to all those who defend human rights,” the opposition member stated in her message, “this honor belongs to them. This day belongs to them. The future belongs to them.”
During the event, her daughter put into words the excitement of those who were waiting for the Venezuelan Nobel Prize winner. “I must say that my mother never breaks a promise. And that is why, with all the joy in my heart, I can tell you that in just a few hours we will be able to hug her here in Oslo,” said Sosa during a ceremony in which, despite not being there in person, the figure of María Corina Machado was omnipresent.
There were his family members, his closest collaborators and allies, his message, his determination to continue in the fight. “This is the story of a people and their long road to freedom. “What an honor to hear my acceptance speech for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in the voice of my daughter, and to know that very soon I will be able to hug her and my family again,” Machado wrote in his first post on Twitter after three days of silence, when it was already night in the freezing Oslo and shortly after hundreds of Venezuelans took to the streets to participate in the traditional torch procession, a symbol that is repeated year after year after each Nobel Prize award to remember how light makes its way through the darkness.
“Freedom, freedom, freedom, Venezuela, freedom!” roared the Venezuelan diaspora outside the Grand Hotel in Oslo, where the suite Nobel Prize winner was still waiting for the arrival of this year’s winner. Ana Corina Sosa came out from her balcony. Torches rose into the sky. A huge Venezuelan flag was placed on the steps of the Norwegian Parliament. And the crowd screamed, sang, cried. The Nobel Prize marked the greatest symbolic achievement for the Venezuelan opposition after two decades of darkness, repression and impotence. And then, finally, María Corina arrived.
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