Venezuelan opposition leader says US helped her travel to Norway to accept Nobel Prize

By Lauren Kent, CNN

(CNN) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said US government “support” helped her travel to collect her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, hours after the US seized an oil tanker in a dramatic escalation of pressure against the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro.

Machado, who has been in hiding following Venezuela’s disputed election last year, left on a fishing boat, according to the Wall Street Journal, after slipping through military checkpoints wearing a wig as a disguise. She then took a private jet to Norway. CNN has not independently confirmed the details of Machado’s travel. The US State Department declined to comment.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Nobel laureate thanked those who had “risked their lives” for her to make the trip and committed to returning home soon, whether or not Maduro is still in power.

The opposition leader has long aligned herself with the Trump administration’s argument that Maduro is linked to criminal groups and drug trafficking gangs and that he poses a threat to US national security. CNN has previously reported that US officials have held talks with people close to Machado to discuss plans for next steps if Maduro is ousted.

But on Thursday, Machado was walking a fine line between welcoming Trump’s tougher stance on Maduro and not being seen to be supporting any US-led regime change or the deadly US strikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean.

Asked for her reaction to the Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Machado said she supports global actions to cut off oil revenue propping up the Venezuelan government, without directly referencing the United States.

“The regime is using the resources – the cash flows that come from illegal activities, including the black market of oil – not to give food for hungry children, not for teachers who earn $1 a day, not to hospitals in Venezuela that do not have medicine or water, not for security. They use those resources to repress and persecute our people,” Machado said in a news conference in Oslo.

“So yes, these criminal groups have to be stopped, and cutting the sources of illegal activities is a very necessary step to take,” she said.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the seized tanker had been sanctioned by the US due to involvement in “an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” including Venezuela and Iran.

The Venezuelan government denounced the seizure, calling it an “act of international piracy.”

“I believe that President Trump’s actions have been decisive to reach the point where we are right now, in which the regime is weaker than ever,” Machado said. “The regime previously thought that they could do anything… Now, they start to understand that this is serious, and the world is really watching.”

Asked whether she would support US military intervention in Venezuela, Machado said the country had already been “invaded” by Russian and Iranian agents, terrorist groups and Colombian drug cartels that operate with impunity and fund Maduro’s regime.

The Nobel laureate said she would not speculate on the actions of foreign countries and that she and her team did not coordinate on matters of national security.

Asked by CNN if the Venezuelan government knows where she has been in hiding for the last 15 months, Machado responded: “I don’t think they have known where I have been, and certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here.”

Machado arrived in Oslo just hours after the ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize, which her daughter accepted on her behalf. She was greeted by crowds of cheering supporters who she waved to from the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, and later said she met many Venezuelans hopeful they might one day return to a liberated country.

Maduro’s government has warned that Machado would be considered a “fugitive” by authorities should she leave Venezuela.

“I’ll be back in Venezuela, I have no doubt,” she doubled down on Thursday.

The Venezuelan opposition leader vowed that her country would soon be “bright, democratic and free,” adding that courage to fight for freedom increases when the things you love are in danger.

“Peace, ultimately, is an act of love,” she said. “I am very hopeful Venezuela will be free, and we will turn the country into a beacon of hope and opportunity, of democracy.”

Machado also said she doesn’t yet have plans to visit other European capitals or the US but said she has received “quite a few invitations” during her time in Norway. “There are some meetings that I believe could be very useful that I do before I go back home.”

CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon, Pau Mosquera and Lex Harvey contributed to this report.

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