Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Venezuelan Opposition Leader Makes First Public Appearance to Greet Crowds After Months in Hiding
María Corina Machado climbs over metal barricades to greet cheering crowds outside Oslo’s Grand Hotel in a surprise early-morning appearance
Venezuela’s most prominent opposition figure — and newly named Nobel Peace Prize laureate — María Corina Machado made a dramatic return to the public eye in Norway after secretly fleeing her authoritarian homeland by sea.
The longtime democracy activist appeared on the balcony of Oslo’s historic Grand Hotel shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, ending nearly a year spent in hiding in Caracas, where she had been evading Nicolás Maduro’s security forces.
Below her, dozens of Venezuelan exiles and supporters erupted into chants of “¡Valiente!” (“Courageous!”) and “¡Libertad!” (“Freedom!”), breaking into the Venezuelan national anthem as she emerged. Their voices carried through the early-morning air: “Glory to the brave people, who cast off the yoke!”
The appearance marked Machado’s first public sighting since she was forced underground nearly 11 months earlier, after Maduro — widely accused of stealing the July 2024 presidential election — intensified the crackdown on opposition leaders.
Only minutes after briefly stepping out from the famed Nobel suite balcony, the 58-year-old conservative descended to street level, climbing over a row of metal barricades to embrace supporters waiting along the hotel’s illuminated 19th-century façade.
Her dramatic arrival came just hours after her 34-year-old daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in her place Wednesday afternoon. Machado’s absence from the ceremony had raised questions until Norwegian officials revealed she had been unable to reach Oslo in time.
During the ceremony, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, openly called on Maduro to relinquish power, noting that the incumbent had lost last year’s election to Machado’s ally, Edmundo González. “Let a new age dawn,” Frydnes urged, praising Machado’s “unwavering struggle for a peaceful, democratic transition” in Venezuela.
In recent decades, several laureates have been blocked from collecting their Nobel Prizes due to repression at home — including China’s Liu Xiaobo, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and Poland’s Lech Wałęsa. Machado now joins that list.
Reports suggest Machado’s journey out of Venezuela was delayed by severe weather as she attempted a covert maritime escape toward the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao the day before her Oslo debut.
Inside Venezuela, Maduro’s government reacted with hostility. Vice-president Delcy Rodríguez dismissed the Nobel ceremony as “a complete failure,” mocking Machado for not appearing. “They claim she was afraid,” Rodríguez said, alleging that the 2025 Nobel Prize had been “tainted with blood.”
Maduro himself lashed out during a rally in Caracas, condemning the current Trump administration — which has escalated its efforts to dislodge him — for what he called “illegal and brutal interference.” He urged supporters to be prepared “to smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”
Should Trump succeed in forcing Maduro from office, Machado is widely seen as the figure best positioned to lead Venezuela through a political transition. Yet analysts stress that Maduro’s grip on power remains formidable. He endured Trump’s 2019 “maximum pressure” strategy, which combined sanctions with threats of escalation, and many observers believe the Venezuelan strongman may once again weather Washington’s latest campaign.