Machado Opposition leader says US seizure of ship was 'necessary'

Venezuela’s best-known opposition leader, the Nobel peace prize winner Maria Corina Machado, said she supported the US seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, calling it a “very necessary step” to confront Nicolas Maduro’s “criminal” regime.

- Tom Phillips Rio de Janeiro Miranda Bryant Camille Rodriguez Montilla Oslo

Speaking in Oslo yesterday, a day after she was honoured for her “tireless” struggle for democratic change, Machado praised the US navy and coastguard raid on the vessel.

Machado said the huge oil wealth of Venezuela - which has the world’s largest proven reserves - had not been used by Maduro’s dictatorship to fund hospitals, feed impoverished teachers or improve security. Rather, his regime had used it to buy weapons that were used to repress its opponents. “So yes, these criminals have to be stopped and cutting the resources of illegal activities is a very necessary step,” Machado said.

Earlier in the day, Machado said her arrival in Oslo marked a “historic turning point” that showed Venezuelans “the world is with them”.

Machado, who was forced into hiding in Venezuela by Maduro, slipped out of her authoritarian homeland by boat in order to travel to Norway to collect her prize.

Speaking at the Norwegian parliament, the Storting, a few hours after making a dramatic appearance to greet supporters from a hotel balcony in Oslo, and an emotional reunion with her family, Machado thanked those who had “risked their lives so that I can be here today”.

Standing alongside the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store, she said: “I don’t think the authorities knew where I was. And it’s quite clear that they would have done everything they could to stop me from coming here ... I would say to all citizens of the world in this hour and assure you that I am very hopeful Venezuela will be free and we will turn a country into a beacon of hope and opportunity, of democracy?”

Machado, who had not seen her children for nearly two years before arriving in Oslo, said she had been unable to sleep trying to decide what she would do in the “first instant that I saw my children”.