President Maduro’s rival was hurt as she sped on a boat through choppy waters in secret escape from hiding to reach Oslo ceremony.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was injured as she made a clandestine dash to collect her Nobel Peace Prize last week, her spokesperson has said.

Claudia Macero said late on Monday that the right-wing opposition figure fractured a vertebra during a choppy boat ride that had formed part of a risky cloak-and-dagger journey to reach the Norwegian capital, Oslo, for the Nobel award ceremony.

Machado has been in hiding since she was banned from running in Venezuela’s July 24 presidential election, fearing that her life is under threat from long-time Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“The vertebra fracture is confirmed,” Macero told the AFP news agency, adding that no further details would be released beyond what had been reported in the Norwegian daily Aftonbladet.

The newspaper had earlier reported that the 58-year-old Machado sustained the fracture while crossing the sea in a small fishing boat battered by high waves.

The opposition leader was examined by doctors at Oslo University Hospital during her time in the city.

Dangerous dash

Media reports in the United States said Machado’s escape last week involved wearing a disguise, including a wig, and travelling from a small Venezuelan fishing village on a wooden boat to the island of Curacao, before boarding a private plane to Norway.

Machado has said she feared for her life during the voyage, which saw US forces situated in the Caribbean alerted to avoid a strike on the vessel.

Several similar boats have been attacked in recent months in a campaign that the Trump administration asserts is a bid to avert drug smuggling into the US.

Maduro has accused Washington of seeking to engineer regime change in the hope of seizing Venezuela’s large oil reserves.

The leader of the opposition Vente Venezuela party was attempting to reach the ceremony at which she was due to be presented with the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was announced the winner of the prestigious award in October, with the selection committee praising her role in the country’s opposition movement and her “steadfast” support for democracy.

‘Broken soul’

Despite her speedy trip, Machado failed to reach Oslo in time for the ceremony. Her daughter received the award on her behalf and delivered a speech that slammed Maduro and warned of the need to fight for democracy.

Hours after the ceremony, early on Thursday morning, Machado greeted supporters from an Oslo hotel balcony in what was her first public appearance in a year.

Despite the fracture, she climbed over a barrier to greet supporters outside the hotel, AFP reported.

Machado said authorities in Venezuela would have attempted everything possible to prevent her journey to Norway.

Appearing set to challenge Maduro in the vote, the opposition leader was barred from running in the country’s presidential election in July last year.

She then announced that she would be going into hiding within Venezuela due to fear for her life while Maduro is in power.

The Venezuelan president commented dismissively on the reports of Machado’s injury on television on Monday.

Machado “says she has a broken vertebra”, he said. “What’s broken is her brain and her soul because she’s a demon – she hates Venezuela.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz says he wants restrictions on military flights approved before government funding runs out at the end of next month to prevent another midair collision like the one over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people in January.

Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell held a news conference Monday with some of the victims’ families to denounce provisions in a massive defense bill that’s expected to pass this week. The provisions would allow military aircraft to get a waiver to return to operating without broadcasting their precise location, just as they were before the Jan. 29 crash between an airliner and an Army helicopter.

Cruz and Cantwell want the provisions removed, but changing the bill would send it back to the House, potentially delaying raises for soldiers and other key provisions. With that unlikely, Cruz said he’ll seek action to reimpose the restrictions on military flights as part of a government funding package in January.

“I’m seeking a vote on the ROTOR Act as part of any appropriations measure before the current continuing resolution expires at the end of next month,” Cruz said. ROTOR stands for “Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform.”

The provision in the defense bill has rekindled debate over air safety near the nation’s capital. Before the crash in January, military helicopters routinely flew through the crowded airspace around the nation’s capital without using a key system called ADS-B to broadcast their locations. The Federal Aviation Administration began requiring all aircraft to do that in March.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, senators, airlines and key transportation unions all sharply criticized the new helicopter safety provisions in the defense bill when they came to light.

Cruz said the defense bill provision “was airdropped in at at the last moment,” noting it would unwind actions taken by President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make the airspace around D.C. safer.

“The special carve-out was exactly what caused the January 29th crash that claimed 67 lives,” Cruz said.

The families of the crash victims said that bill would weaken safeguards and send aviation safety backwards. Amy Hunter, who lost her cousin and his family in the crash, said Trump and his administration had worked to implement safety recommendations from the NTSB, but warned those reforms could be lost in the military policy bill.

Hunter said it “now threatens to undo everything, all the progress that was already made, and it will compromise the safety around Reagan National Airport.”

The NTSB won’t release its final report on the cause of the crash until sometime next year, but investigators have already raised a number of key concerns about the 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the crash and the helicopter route that allowed Black Hawks to fly dangerously close to planes landing at the airport’s secondary runway.

The bill Cruz and Cantwell proposed to require all aircraft to broadcast their locations has broad support from the White House, the FAA, NTSB and the victims’ families.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he hoped the air safety legislation Cruz and Cantwell introduced last summer, called the ROTOR Act, could be added to the funding package that the Senate may start considering this week ahead of the holiday break.

“I think we’ll get there on that, but it would be really hard to undo the defense authorization bill now,” Thune, R-S.D., said.

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This story has been updated to delete erroneous reporting that Sen. Ted Cruz was threatening another federal government shutdown if new restrictions on military flights are not approved by the end of January. Rather, Cruz said he’ll seek action to reimpose the restrictions as part of a government funding package. AP members must NOT use earlier versions of US–Aviation Safety.

Pope Leo XIV on Monday condemned “antisemitic violence” in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, in which a father and son opened fire on a crowd attending a Hanukkah celebration.

The pope prayed for the victims and the “gift of peace and fraternity” this holiday season as he spoke during an audience with the donors of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations.

“We pray for those who suffer from war and violence, in particular today I want to entrust to the Lord the victims of the terrorist attack in Sydney against the Jewish community,” the pontiff said on Monday.

“Enough of these forms of antisemitic violence!” he continued. “We must eliminate hatred from our hearts.”

AUSTRALIA TERROR ATTACK: 16 DEAD, INCLUDING GUNMAN, AFTER FATHER-SON DUO OPENS FIRE ON JEWISH COMMUNITY

Leo made similar prayers in an official telegram of condolence sent to the archbishop of Sydney, Most. Rev. Anthony Fisher.

The pope prayed “with renewed hope that those tempted to violence will undergo conversion and seek the path of peace and solidarity,” according to the telegram signed by the Vatican secretary of state.

At least 15 victims were killed and dozens more were wounded in the massacre over the weekend on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where hundreds had gathered for a “Chanukah by the Sea” event celebrating the beginning of the Jewish festival. One of the gunmen was shot and killed by police while the other was hospitalized with injuries.

A man identified as Ahmed al Ahmed has been praised as a hero for tackling and disarming one of the gunmen. He was shot but is recovering in a hospital.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denounced the shooting as an act of antisemitic terrorism and vowed to strengthen the country’s already strict gun laws.

The attack was an “act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism,” Albanese said.

Leo also issued a strong anti-abortion message during the audience with the donors of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations, which he described as a sign of “faith and hope.”

The pope said the evergreen fir trees donated by various Italian regions “are a sign of life and recall the hope that isn’t lacking even in the winter cold.”

He said another sign of life was reflected in the Nativity scene in the Vatican’s audience hall, which was donated by Costa Rica. It featured 28,000 ribbons representing embryos that were not aborted.

GAL GADOT, ASHTON KUTCHER CONDEMN ANTISEMITIC TERROR ATTACK AT BONDI BEACH HANUKKAH EVENT

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“Each of these 28,000 colored ribbons that decorate the scene represent a life saved from abortion thanks to the prayer and support provided by Catholic organizations to many mothers in need,” the pontiff said.

Leo thanked the artist for the message affirming that “life is protected from conception.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.