By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Thursday that “decisive” actions by the United States, including the seizure of an oil tanker, have left the repressive government of President Nicolás Maduro at its weakest point, and she vowed to return to the country to keep fighting for democracy.
Machado’s statements to reporters came hours after she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months, following her arrival in Norway’s capital, Oslo, where her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf on Wednesday.
The actions of President Donald Trump “have been decisive to reach where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker,” she said. “Because before, the regime thought it had impunity …. Now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching.”
Machado sidestepped questions on whether a U.S. military intervention is necessary to remove Maduro from power. She told reporters that she would return to Venezuela “when we believe the security conditions are right, and it won’t depend on whether or not the regime leaves.”
Machado arrived in Oslo hours after Wednesday’s prize ceremony and made her first public appearance early Thursday, emerging from a hotel balcony and waving to an emotional crowd of supporters. She had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters during a protest in Caracas.
Machado left Venezuela at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis, with the Trump administration carrying out deadly military operations in the Caribbean and threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. The White House has said the operations, which have killed more than 80 people, are meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But many, including analysts, U.S. members of Congress and Maduro himself, see the operations as an effort to end his hold on power. The opposition led by Machado has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. On Thursday, Machado called on governments to expand their support for Venezuela’s opposition beyond words.
“We, the Venezuelan people that have tried every single, you know, institutional mean, ask support from the democratic nations in the world to cut those resources that come from illegal activities and support repressive approaches,” she said. “And that’s why we are certainly asking the world to act. It’s not a matter of statements, as you say, it’s a matter of action.”
Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October after mounting the most serious peaceful challenge in years to Maduro’s authoritarian government. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize at a ceremony in Oslo.
Machado was received Thursday by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who said that his country is ready to support a democratic Venezuela in “building new and sound institutions.”
Asked whether the Venezuelan government might have known her whereabouts since January, Machado told reporters: “I don’t think they have known where I have been, and certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here.”
She declined to give details of her journey from Venezuela to Norway. But she thanked “all those men and women that risked their lives so that I could be here today” and later acknowledged that the U.S. government helped her.
Flight tracking data show that the plane Machado arrived on flew to Oslo from Bangor, Maine.
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
It’s unclear how Machado and González could return to Venezuela. An opposition plan to get González back before the Jan. 10 ceremony that gave Maduro another term didn’t materialize.
Machado, alongside the Norwegian prime minister, said that “we decided to fight until the end and Venezuela will be free.” If Maduro’s government is still in place when she returns, she added, “I will be with my people and they will not know where I am. We have ways to do that and take care of us.”