The Venezuelan opposition leader, who has been in hiding for months to escape from Chavismo, declared this morning to the British network that she will return to her country, despite knowing “exactly the risks” that this entails. He stated this after traveling covertly to Norway to collect the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, a ceremony to which he arrived late on Wednesday, but from what I know, greeting his followers at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, upon his arrival.
“Of course I’m going to return. I know exactly the risks I run. I’m going to be in the place where I’m most useful to our cause,” the politician said in an interview with the BBC released today. “Until recently, the place where I thought I had to be was Venezuela; the place where I think I have to be today, in the name of our cause, is Oslo,” he added.
The opposition leader spoke after appearing on the balcony of her hotel last night, where she was greeted with shouts of “brave” by a crowd, who then sang the Venezuelan national anthem. “For more than 16 months I have not been able to hug or touch anyone. Suddenly, in a matter of hours, I have been able to see the people I love most, touch them, cry and pray together,” he added, in an atmosphere of euphoria that is unparalleled in intensity – not in number – nor in the electoral campaign for the presidential elections of July 2024, those that the current president, , manipulated.
Machado has long denounced the Maduro government as “criminal” and has called on Venezuelans to unite to overthrow him. He has not even censured the United States’ veiled intentions to do so one day. “The Venezuelan government says that I am a terrorist and that I have to spend the rest of my life in prison, and they are looking for me,” he said. “So leaving Venezuela today, under these circumstances, is very, very dangerous,” Machado admitted. “I just want to say today that I am here, because many men,” he said, “and women risked their lives so that I could reach Oslo,” he thanked, after a trip along the coast of his country, until he reached Curacao and, from there, to the United States and Norway.
“The world is with us and we are not alone. This is a defining moment”
This morning, during his visit to the Norwegian Parliament (Storting), he elaborated on these ideas. “The world is with us and we are not alone. This is a defining moment,” she told the media according to the Norwegian agency NTB after being received with a hug by the president of the chamber, Masud Gharahkhani. “I very much hope that Venezuela will be free,” he said.
A “criminal structure”
The conservative politician was banned from running in last year’s presidential election, in which Maduro won a third six-year term, but the results were widely dismissed internationally as neither free nor fair.
“We need to approach this regime not as a conventional dictatorship, but as a criminal structure,” Machado said, accusing the Maduro regime of being financed by criminal activities like the , and reiterating his calls for the international community to help Venezuela “cut off those flows” of criminal resources. Maduro, for his part, has always denied having ties to drug cartels.
When Machado was asked if he would support a US military attack on Venezuelan soil, given Washington’s recent attacks on suspected drug ships, Machado did not respond directly, instead accusing Maduro of “handing over our sovereignty to criminal organizations.”
She stated that she and her team are prepared to form a government in Venezuela and that she offered to meet with Maduro’s team to seek a peaceful transition, but “they rejected it.”
The threat from the Prosecutor’s Office
Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general told the agency that Machado would be considered a fugitive if she traveled to Norway to collect her award, alleging that she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement to hatred and terrorism.” Carlos Blanco, advisor to the dissident leader, has emphasized to (Colombia) that the “fundamental commitment” of politics to the people of Venezuela prevails, and that explains why she is going to return. Although he has been underground since July 2024, his goal is to return and work from within.
He does not want to talk about leaving the country, but about a trip, which represents “a strengthening of the struggle in the country.” It is true that this time from the Miraflores Palace there is no talk of an escape, as was done with the winner, say the opponents, of last year’s elections. Since September of last year, and also persecuted by the Prosecutor’s Office, the former ambassador resides in Madrid (Spain), from where he travels around the world to keep his cause alive. Nobody knows if Machado will be following that trail for a while or will try to return to his homeland immediately. In addition to our country, where there is a large representation of anti-Chavismo, she has family connections with the United States in particular.
It is a battle, says Blanco, that is also fought in an “important symbol” such as the Nobel Peace Prize. “His commitment is to return and use his prestige, his strength and his international significance to strengthen the cause” of Venezuela, he explains. “Their role is within,” he insists, but that “does not exclude” visits like the one in Oslo.
Beyond the award, the advisor insists that his country’s “united” opposition needs international support. “We cannot do it alone,” he acknowledges, in the face of this “criminal gang” that, in his understanding, is the Chavista regime. “We have to turn to them because it is the duty of the international community to support our democratic struggle,” he emphasizes.
For obvious security reasons, Blanco refuses to reveal details about Machado’s departure or return to his country, although he does repeat that they feel “rejoiced” by his departure to Oslo and because, he boasts, he has left Maduro “in dismay” (disappointed, frustrated or eager), after the “epic day” that his arrival in Norway represents. It already happened, he remembers, when in May the US announced that they had been in its embassy in Caracas for more than a year. An operation that the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner described as “impeccable and epic.” “We are going to free each of our 900 heroes imprisoned by this tyranny,” he promised.
The BBC notes that the details of his trip to Oslo were kept so secret that not even the Nobel Institute knew where he was or whether he would arrive in time for the award ceremony, which was received on his behalf by his daughter,
According to the newspaper To escape from Venezuela, Machado disguised herself, managed to pass 10 military checkpoints without being discovered and escaped on a wooden boat from a coastal fishing town. The plan was developed for two months, according to the newspaper, which cites a person close to the operation.
To escape, they had the assistance of a Venezuelan network that helps people flee the country.
