Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado said the US government’s “assistance” helped her travel to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, hours after the US dramatically increased pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government and seized an oil tanker.
Machado, who went into hiding after Venezuela’s presidential election last year, slipped through a military checkpoint wearing a wig and left the country on a fishing boat, The Wall Street Journal reported. She then flew to Norway on a private jet. CNN has not independently confirmed the details of Machado’s trip. The US State Department declined to comment.
The Nobel laureate told reporters on Thursday she thanked those who “risked their lives” for her trip and vowed to return home soon, regardless of whether President Maduro is still in power or not.
Opposition leaders have long echoed the Trump administration’s claims that Maduro has ties to criminal organizations and drug lords and poses a threat to U.S. national security. CNN previously reported that U.S. officials have met with people close to Machado to discuss next steps if Maduro is ousted.
But on Thursday, Machado was walking a fine line between welcoming President Trump’s tougher stance on Maduro and not being seen as endorsing U.S.-led regime change or deadly U.S. attacks on fishing boats in the Caribbean.
Asked about his reaction to the Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Machado said he supported global action to cut off oil revenues that support the Venezuelan government, without directly mentioning the United States.
“The regime is not using its resources, its cash flow from illegal activities, including the black market for oil, to feed hungry children, not to feed teachers on $1 a day, not to feed Venezuelan hospitals without medicine or water, not to provide security. They are using those resources to repress and persecute our people,” Machado said at a news conference in Oslo.
“Yes, these criminal groups must be stopped. Cutting off the source of illegal activities is a very necessary step,” she said.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the tanker was sanctioned by the U.S. for its involvement in “illicit oil transportation networks that support foreign terrorist organizations,” including Venezuela and Iran.
The Venezuelan government denounced the seizure as “an act of international piracy.”
“I believe that President Trump’s actions were decisive in getting us to the current situation where the administration is weaker than ever,” Machado said. “The administration used to think it could do anything, but now it’s starting to understand that this is serious and the world is watching.”
Asked if he supported U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, Machado said the country has already been “invaded” by Russian and Iranian operatives, terrorist organizations, and Colombian drug cartels that finance Maduro’s regime and operate with impunity.
The Nobel laureate said she would not speculate on foreign actions and that she and her team do not coordinate on national security issues.
Asked by CNN if the Venezuelan government knew where she had been hiding for the past 15 months, Machado said: “I don’t think they knew where I was. I’m sure they would have done everything to prevent me from coming here.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Colina Machado says Venezuelan regime ‘would have done everything’ to prevent her from traveling to Oslo
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Colina Machado says Venezuelan regime ‘would have done everything’ to prevent her from traveling to Oslo
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Machado arrived in Oslo just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and her daughter accepted the award on her behalf. She was welcomed and waved by a crowd of cheering supporters from the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, but said afterwards she met many Venezuelans who hope to one day return to their liberated country.
Maduro’s government has warned that Machado will be considered a “fugitive” by authorities if he leaves Venezuela.
“I’m going back to Venezuela, without a doubt,” she reinforced on Thursday.
Venezuela’s opposition leader has vowed that his country will soon be “bright, democratic and free,” adding that people have more courage to fight for freedom when what they love is at risk.
“Peace, after all, is an act of love,” she says. “I have great hope that Venezuela will be free and that we will turn this country into a beacon of hope, opportunity and democracy.”
Machado also said she had no plans yet to visit other European capitals or the United States, but said she had received “quite a few invitations” while in Norway. “I have a few meetings before I go home that I think will be very helpful.”
CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon, Pau Mosquera and Lex Harvey contributed to this report.
