María Corina Machado reappears in Norway: "I have high hopes that Venezuela will be free"

BarcelonaAfter a year in hiding, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was able to reach Oslo the day after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Machado reiterated her commitment against the Nicolás Maduro regime: "I have high hopes that Venezuela will be free and that it can welcome back all the Venezuelans who have had to flee." The Nobel Peace Prize laureate asserted that the Venezuelan government is sustained by a "strong system of repression" financed by arms and oil trafficking. When these economic flows weaken, "the regime will end," said Machado, who called on the international community to help cut them off. The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Machado coincides with an escalation of psychological warfare and Washington's interventionism against Maduro, and a possible military operation against Venezuela seems increasingly likely. The threat intensified this Wednesday with the seizure of an oil tanker off the country's coast in a US military operationIn this regard, when asked about her hypothetical support for this military action, Machado told the press that Venezuela "has already been invaded" and accused the Maduro government of allowing Russian and Iranian agents, terrorist groups, and drug cartels to operate freely. Machado reappeared early this morning on the balcony of the Grand Hotel in Oslo after arriving in the Norwegian capital to receive the Nobel Prize. From there, she greeted her supporters in the early hours, visibly tired but smiling, and sang her country's national anthem with her hand on her heart, before approaching the dozens of Venezuelans gathered outside to welcome her.

Amidst cell phones recording her and shouts of "Long live Venezuela!", Machado approached the barriers erected by Norwegian police for security reasons, and on several occasions climbed them to get even closer to her supporters, shaking their hands, blowing kisses, and even... "I have come to receive the award on behalf of the Venezuelan people and I will return it to Venezuela at the appropriate time," she later stated to reporters in the Norwegian parliament. "Of course, I won't say when."

His arrival in Oslo has been shrouded in uncertainty. Last weekend, he assured the Nobel Institute that he would be in Oslo for Wednesday's Nobel Prize ceremony. However, on the eve of the solemn event, he was unable to participate in the traditional press conference for the laureates, as planned, nor did he arrive in time at Oslo City Hall to collect the prize. That same Wednesday, in a telephone conversation from an undisclosed location with Frydnes, he said he was already "on his way to Oslo" and that, as soon as he arrived, he would be able to embrace his entire family: "And so many Venezuelans and Norwegians I know who share our struggle and our effort," he added. His daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, was already waiting for him in Oslo. On Wednesday, she delivered the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on behalf of the mother.–, His two children, his sister, and his mother.

Odyssey to Oslo

Machado's journey to Oslo has been a true odyssey. According to several analysts cited by the EFE news agency, the itinerary began on Tuesday with a sea voyage from Venezuela to Curaçao and was completed with a long flight of nearly 9,000 kilometers to the Norwegian capital, with a stopover in the United States. The 58-year-old opposition leader landed in Oslo early this morning aboard a private plane that, according to flight tracking platforms FlightRadar24 and FlightAware, had departed earlier from Curaçao, one of the islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean, located just 6,000 kilometers from the US.

The aircraft, with a capacity for thirteen passengers, is registered in Mexico, based at the Santiago de Querétaro International Airport, and operated by JetVip Business Aviation. To pick up Machado, the plane departed on Tuesday from Miami's Opa-locka Executive Airport in Florida (USA), bound for Hato International Airport in Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao, where it landed that evening. From there, according to tracking platforms, the plane took off on Wednesday at 6:42 a.m. local time (10:42 GMT) for a four-hour and forty-three-minute flight to Bangor International Airport in Maine (USA), where it made a technical stop. The final leg, a six-hour and twenty-four-minute flight between Bangor and Oslo Gardermoen Airport, concluded shortly before midnight.