Undercover on the high seas: María Corina Machado’s escape from Venezuela to Europe

With a wig on my head, it was a 10-hour journey and 10 military checkpoints faced (with Trump’s help?). The Nobel Peace Prize winner promised to return to Venezuela, but it may not be that easy.

A Nobel da Paz Maria Corina Machadothe main figure in the Venezuelan opposition to Nicolás Maduro, reportedly fled the country clandestinely this week in what was a high-risk operation, which involved disguise, a dangerous sea crossing in the Caribbean Sea and a large support network to make the Portuguese-Venezuelan reach Osloin Norway, where the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize.

According to a person close to the operation, Machado began his escape on Monday afternoon. She came out wearing a wig from a suburb of Caracas where she had been hiding for about a year. The trip, described as “breathtaking”, lasted around 10 hours and forced the opposition to cross 10 military checkpoints.

At each of the 10 points, María Corina Machado and her two companions managed to avoid arrest, until they arrived, around midnight, at a fishing village where the next phase was already prepared: leaving by sea.

After a few hours of rest, the delegation left at around 5:00 am, aboard a small wooden fishing boat, heading towards Curacao. The crossing was made in difficult conditions, with strong winds and rough seas and the Nobel Peace Prize will have been lost in the Caribbean, no communication for hoursuntil she was found by a rescue team, according to .

The same source states that the operation had been in preparation for approximately two months by a Venezuelan network specialized in helping people leave the country, and that one of the steps considered critical was prior contact with US forces in the region, to prevent the boat from being confused with other vessels and hit by air strikes (the US has frequently attacked similar vessels).

“We agreed that she would leave through a specific area so that the boat wouldn’t be blown up,” said the person close to the operation, quoted by the WSJ.

Information about this contact with the USA is, however, contested. Sources indicated that the Trump administration was aware of the operation, although it is unclear to what extent it participated. The Pentagon and the US Navy declined to comment, and administration officials denied the accuracy of the alleged military coordination.

Even so, flight tracking data indicates that, during the period in which the boat advanced towards Curaçao, two F-18 fighters of the US Navy were in the Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes, describing circular trajectories relatively close to the likely sea route. It would have been the most significant approach of US aircraft to Venezuelan airspace since Washington intensified its military presence in the region in early autumn.

Machado arrived in Curaçao around 3 pm on Tuesday. The same source describes that it was received by a private contractor specializing in extraction operations and that, at this stage, it would have been made available within the support framework associated with the USA. He spent the night in a hotel on the island.

“Brave”

The following morning, with attention already focused on the Nobel ceremony in Norway, an executive jet, assigned to an associate based in Miami, took off from Curaçao bound for Oslo, with a technical stopover in Bangor, in the US state of Maine.

Before boarding, Machado recorded a short audio message to thank the “many people” who, in his words, risked their lives so he could leave the country. He arrived in Oslo early Wednesday evening, after the ceremony had ended without public confirmation of his whereabouts. The Nobel Institute even told the Norwegian press that it did not know where the laureate was.

At the ceremony, the president of the Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, said that Machado had gone through “a journey in an extremely dangerous situation”. It was Corina Machado’s daughter who received the award and assured the public that her mother “will return to Venezuela very soon”.

In Oslo, the Portuguese-Venezuelan woman, described as “” by her opponent Maduro, appeared at the balcony of the Grand Hotel, in the city center, waving to supporters who shouted “brave” and sang the Venezuelan anthem. In an interview with , he stated that he was “still trying to believe” that he had finally arrived in the Norwegian capital.

According to people who speak to Machado frequently, the leader now plans to rest for a few days, after a long period of isolation and physical fragility. Then you want to start a tour through several European countries to reinforce international support for the Venezuelan opposition cause and, later, also travel to Washington.

In Caracas, the regime’s reaction was immediate — and harsh. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez accused Machado and the opposition of serving “imperialist” interests of the USA to appropriate the country’s oil and mineral resources. He also criticized the fact that Machado was not present at the ceremony and attacked those who, according to the government, defend sanctions, blockades and even military intervention against Venezuela.

Runaway and prevented from returning?

Leaving the country presents political and personal risks to Machado. In addition to the immediate danger of escape, there is the possibility of being prevented from returningwhich could reduce its internal influence. Attorney General Tarek William Saab warned that Machado would be considered fugitive if you traveled to Norway.

Despite this, opposition activists argue that having Machado out of Venezuela can strengthen the movementallowing him to directly lobby foreign governments and press for additional economic and political measures against Maduro, something that, in internal exile, would depend on remote connections.

The leader has defended the need for a credible threat of force to displace Maduro from power, although, when faced with the possibility of US air strikes, she has avoided responding directly, insisting that the Venezuelan people do not want war. He sought, instead, to frame the conflict as a “war” declared by the regime against citizens through “state terrorism” and transnational criminal activities, arguing that the international community must cut off flows of resources that support repression.

Machado was prevented from running for presidential elections last yearbut led a campaign around an opposition candidate who, according to the opposition itself and the US, won significantly. Maduro declared victory and unleashed a violent crackdown on protests. Machado went underground and the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, ended up leaving the country.

The Venezuelan leader now reaffirms that she intends to return, despite the risk of arrest and legal proceedings. Furthermore, according to the same source, he has already carried out other secret trips outside the country in the past, namely to Colombiawhere he met with then President Iván Duque, and managed to return through similar methods.