Venezuelan Nobel winner Machado leaves Norway for unknown destination

Bloomberg News on Dec 17, 2025

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Nobel Laureate María Corina Machado has left Norway, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Machado’s whereabouts are currently unknown, and Store provided no further details. Spokesperson Magalli Meda said by text message that Machado “is taking care of her health” and that she needs some time off.

The Venezuelan democracy activist emerged from hiding in her home country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo last week, but arrived too late for the ceremony where her daughter accepted the prize on her behalf. Machado, 58, fractured her spine after a perilous journey in bad weather.

She has vowed to return to Venezuela but was expected to visit other European countries, and potentially the U.S., before doing so.

Earlier this week, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro dismissed Machado’s injuries on state television. “She says she has a broken vertebra. What’s broken is her brain, and her soul,” Maduro said Monday evening. “She’s a demon.”

The U.S. has been tightening the screws on Maduro’s regime, deploying thousands of troops, several warships and an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean Sea off Venezuela as well as launching strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats that have killed almost 100 people.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going into and leaving Venezuela, an escalation of pressure on Maduro with the potential to further destabilize the country in the short term. Venezuela condemned the latest measures as a “reckless and serious” threat.

Maduro has refrained from issuing an arrest warrant against Machado, even as he’s implicated her in several plots against him and some of his top officials. While she was in Oslo, Trump warned that he “wouldn’t be happy” if the Maduro regime were to detain Machado upon her return.

The opposition leader had been in hiding in Venezuela since August 2024, saying she feared for her life after the movement she led presented evidence that her stand-in candidate in last year’s election defeated Maduro by a landslide. The socialist ruler instead declared himself the winner and launched a repression campaign against his critics.

Prior to her trip to Oslo, Machado last emerged from hiding to attend a rally in early January. On that occasion, she was briefly detained by Maduro’s forces.