How Nobel Winner Machado Secretly Left Venezuela to Accept Prize

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado secretly left Venezuela in a bid to get to Oslo in time to accept her award but was forced to miss the ceremony because bad weather delayed her journey, a person familiar with the matter said.

Machado got out of Venezuela on Tuesday with help from some members of President Nicolas Maduro’s regime, which some U.S. officials see as a sign of their willingness to cooperate if Maduro were to leave power, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Machado, who has been in hiding for more than a year, left Venezuela by boat to Curacao, a Dutch Caribbean island about 40 miles away, the person said. The island is also home to a small U.S. military base.

Her journey was delayed for several hours due to bad weather and rough seas, according to the person, and she was forced to miss the ceremony. Her daughter accepted the award in her place. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported some of the details of her escape.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The person said Machado was aided by the Trump administration and also had help from some members of Maduro’s regime. The Venezuelan government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment and is likely to dispute that version of events, since it has long claimed to know her location.

Machado’s decision to leave Venezuela carries both opportunity and risk for her and the Maduro regime. The opposition leader’s supporters believe a successful return to Venezuela after Wednesday’s Nobel ceremony could strengthen her domestic standing. Others warn that a defiant Maduro could block her re-entry and force her into exile, a fate that has already weakened previous opposition leaders.

Machado, the opposition’s most popular figure, had been in hiding since August 2024. Her decision came after Maduro said that she and Edmundo González, the opposition candidate in the election the previous month, “should be behind bars.”

But the Venezuelan government has refrained from issuing an arrest warrant against Machado despite alleging her involvement in several plots against Maduro and his officials. More recently, officials accused Machado of plotting to plant explosives in public places, including the country’s capital.

Maduro, who became president after the death of his predecessor and patron Hugo Chávez in 2013, is widely considered to have stolen the election in July 2024 from González, who records showed won the most votes. González became a stand-in for Machado after she was barred from the election despite being the overwhelming winner of an opposition primary the previous year.

The Nobel committee, in awarding the peace prize to Machado, cited “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” But Machado is seen by some as condoning military conflict to help achieve her ends of a transition from Maduro’s autocratic rule.

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