Machado defies Venezuela ban, secretly visiting Oslo for Nobel Peace award

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said she planned to take her award back to Venezuela, but declined to say when she would return to her home country after leaving in great secrecy to receive the honour.

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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado greeting supporters from a balcony of the Grand Hotel in Oslo on Dec 11. Her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado earlier accepted the prize in her name and delivered her mother's speech, in which she said democracies must be prepared to fight for freedom in order to survive. PHOTO: AFP

(AFP)

The Venezuelan opposition figure arrived in Oslo early on Dec 11, failing to reach the Norwegian capital in time for the prize ceremony held hours earlier. She said that the US helped her get to Norway from her hideout in Venezuela and expressed support for US military action against her country.

The 58-year-old engineer had secretly left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by the authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding.

"I came to receive the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people, and I will take it back to Venezuela at the correct moment," she told reporters at Parliament on Dec 11, dressed in white. "Of course, I will not say when that is."