Nobel laureate Maria Machado hails Trump, says US govt helped her leave Venezuela

Maria Machado said she plans to go back to Venezuela and disappear from authorities to continue fighting for democracy.

Published on: Dec 11, 2025, 19:12:37 IST

By HT News Desk

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nobel Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday hailed US President Donald Trump and said that the US government helped her leave Venezuela to get to Norway after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Maria Corina Machado, laureate of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize (in the middle) with Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute (L) and Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (R) following a news conference in Oslo, Norway, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Bloomberg)

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"We did get support from the United States government to get here," Machado was quoted as saying by news agency AFP as she said that President Trump's actions have been “decisive”. The Nobel laureate addressed a press conference after emerging from a hotel balcony in Norwegian capital as she came out of hiding for the first time since January after challenging the rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

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Machado said she plans to go back to Venezuela and disappear from authorities to continue fighting for democracy. “I don’t think they have known where I have been and they would have done everything they can to stop me,” she was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

“When I go back, there are two possibilities,” Machado said. “There’s no certainty where the regime will be but if its still in power, certainly I will be with my people and they will not know where I am, we have ways to do that.”

Dramatic escape

She also thanked those who "risked their lives" to get her to Oslo. While her escape to Norway has been a mystery, her return to Venezuela will be a complicated one as the government had said she would be declared a fugitive if she left Venezuela.

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AFP earlier reported that Machado dodged checkpoints and wore a wig as she escaped to Norway in disguise and took three days to make it out of Venezuela.

She was reportedly smuggled out of hiding in Caracas and across the Caribbean Sea in a fishing vessel to a waiting plane and reached Oslo where she surprised her supporters on Thursday.

The Nobel Institute said that Machado had undergone “a journey in a situation of extreme danger” to reach Norway from her place of hiding in Venezuela. She missed Wednesday’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony by hours, and her daughter accepted the award on her behalf.

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HT News Desk
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