Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado made her first public appearance in Norway in eleven months on Thursday when her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
Machado had been in hiding since January 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Her recognition came after a peaceful challenge to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The crowd chanted, “Freedom!” as Machado took to the hotel balcony in Oslo, Norway, and waved to her supporters before joining them in singing Venezuela’s national anthem.
In an audio recording of a telephone conversation published on the Nobel website, Machado said she would not be able to arrive in Oslo in time for the awards ceremony, but that many people had “risked their lives” to get her there.
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Nobel Prize winner Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway on December 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)
“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means for the Venezuelan people,” she said.
Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Nobel Prize in her place, saying her mother “wants to live in a free Venezuela” and will “never give up that goal.”
“That’s why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon,” Sosa added.
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The Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, on December 10. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)
Outside the hotel, Machado interacted and hugged people in the crowd as they took photos and peppered her with chants of “President! President!”
“I want you all back in Venezuela,” Machado said.
Machado’s action came after President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the US had seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, a move that could further strain relations with Maduro’s government, which is already subject to extensive US sanctions on the country’s oil sector.
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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures at a protest ahead of Friday’s inauguration of President Nicolás Maduro for his third term in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 9, 2025. (REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno)
Since September, US military strikes have targeted suspected drug traffickers near Venezuela at least 22 times, killing 87 people. Trump also recently said Maduro’s “days are numbered” and refused to rule out a ground operation in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan opposition leader has previously spoken out in support of the Trump administration’s actions against the Maduro regime and the country’s drug network.
After the award was announced in October, the new Nobel Peace Prize winner dedicated the award to both Trump and the “suffering people of Venezuela.”
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Venezuelan ship destroyed during US military attack on Venezuela on September 2, 2025. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
Machado said during a “Fox & Friends Weekend” interview last month that Venezuela was on the “threshold of freedom,” highlighting her new “freedom manifesto” that envisions a future without the Maduro regime.
