Perilous journey: Laureate fled by sea, like many before her

Thousands of Venezuelan migrants have braved the seas off Falc6n state in recent years, fleeing their shattered homeland towards the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao in rickety wooden boats called yolas. Many lost their lives in the attempt.

- Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent

This week, the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gota taste of that perilous journey herself, as the Nobel laureate began a secret journey of more than 5,500 miles from her authoritarian homeland to Norway to collect the peace prize.

US officials say Machado, 58, slipped out of Venezuela on Tuesday, secretly travelling to Curacao, a former Dutch colony, by boat before continuing by plane. “Her journey was delayed for several hours due to bad weather and rough seas,” reported Bloomberg, which said Machado had been aided by the Trump administration as well as rogue members of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

“So many people ... risked their lives in order for me to arrive in Oslo and I’m very grateful to them,” Machado told the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes.

The details of Machado’s escape through the southern Caribbean remain sparse; she was closely protected as she emerged from nearly a year in hiding and made her break for Europe.

“Everybody speculating has their own favourite ... Netflix story about how she was exfiltrated,” said Moisés Naim, a Venezuelan writer and former minister.