The 58-year-old engineer had secretly left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding.

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Speaking in Oslo, the laureate described the joy of meeting her children – who live in exile – for the first time in about two years.

“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” Machado told the BBC. “Suddenly in the matter of a few hours I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.”

Machado greeted dozens of people from the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay, waving and singing the national anthem along with the crowd, which waved Venezuelan flags and filmed her with their mobile phones.

Later, Machado came down to the street and climbed over crowd barriers to hug and shake hands with people who had gathered in the cold for the chance to see her.

“After all these months in which she has been in hiding and her life has been in danger, I think seeing her together with the entire Venezuelan diaspora is a pleasure and a reassurance that she is safe, and it is also a way for the Venezuelan cause to stay alive and a way to put more pressure on the regime,” said Diana Luna, a Mexican-German woman in the crowd.

Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, earlier accepted the Nobel Prize in her name and delivered a speech by her mother in which she said democracies must be prepared to fight for freedom in order to survive.

In her speech, Machado said that the prize held profound significance, not only for her country but for the world.

“It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace,” she said via her daughter, whose voice cracked when she spoke of her mother. “And more than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom.”

LAUREATE LEFT VENEZUELA BY BOAT

Machado left Venezuela by boat on Tuesday and travelled to the Caribbean island of Curacao, from where she departed on a private plane for Norway, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The source, who had been briefed by Machado’s camp, said her escape from the Venezuelan coast was handled by her security staff. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Machado’s travel to Curacao, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking at her hotel early on Thursday, Machado said she plans to return to Venezuela despite the risks she faces.

“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC.

A large portrait of a smiling Machado hung in the Oslo City Hall to represent her at the ceremony. The audience cheered and clapped when Norwegian Nobel Committee head Joergen Watne Frydnes said during his speech that Machado would be coming to Oslo.

Evoking previous laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, he said fighters for democracy were expected “to pursue their aims with a moral purity their opponents never display”.

“This is unrealistic. It is unfair,” he said.

“No democracy operates in ideal circumstances. Activist leaders must confront and resolve dilemmas that we onlookers are free to ignore. People living under the dictatorship often have to choose between the difficult and the impossible.”

‘A CHOICE THAT MUST BE RENEWED EACH DAY’

In 2024, Machado was barred from running in the presidential election, despite having won the opposition’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.

The electoral authority and top court declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner, but international observers and the opposition say its candidate handily won and the opposition has published ballot box-level tallies as evidence of its victory.

“Freedom is a choice that must be renewed each day, measured by our willingness and our courage to defend it. For this reason, the cause of Venezuela transcends our borders,” she said in her prepared speech.

“A people who choose freedom contribute not only to themselves, but to humanity.”

‘FRAGILE’ DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS

In her speech, Machado said Venezuelans did not realise in time that their country was sliding into what she described as a dictatorship.

Referring to the late president Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1999 and held power until his death in 2013, Machado said: “By the time we recognised how fragile our institutions had become, a man who had once led a military coup to overthrow democracy, was elected president. Many thought that charisma could substitute the rule of law.”

“From 1999 onward, the regime dismantled our democracy.”

Maduro, in power since 2013, says U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and that Venezuelan citizens and armed forces will resist any such attempt.

DEDICATED TO TRUMP

The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast.

Human rights groups, some Democrats and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.

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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in public Thursday for the first time in 11 months in Norway as her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf.

Machado had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Her recognition came after mounting a peaceful challenge to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

The crowd chanted, “Freedom!” as Machado stepped onto 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 phone call published on the Nobel website, Machado said she wouldn’t be able to arrive to Oslo in time for the award ceremony, but that many people had “risked their lives” to get her there.

MARCO RUBIO SAYS NICOLÁS MADURO’S CARTEL DE LOS SOLES TO BE DESIGNATED A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Nobel Prize in her place, saying that her mother “wants to live in a free Venezuela” and “will never give up on that purpose.” 

“That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon,” Sosa added.

BONDI SHARES HEART-POUNDING FOOTAGE OF US SEIZING VENEZUELAN OIL TANKER IN RARE ACTION LAST SEEN IN 2014

Outside the hotel, Machado interacted with and hugged people in the crowd, as they snapped pictures and sprinkled her with chants of “President! President!”

“I want you all back in Venezuela,” Machado said.

Machado’s appearance came after President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, a move that could further strain relations with Maduro’s government, which already is subject to extensive U.S. sanctions targeting the country’s oil sector.

DAVID MARCUS: TRUMP’S AGGRESSION TOWARD VENEZUELA A WARNING TO PUTIN

Since September, U.S. military strikes have targeted alleged narcotraffickers near Venezuela at least 22 times, killing 87 people. Trump has also recently said Maduro’s “days are numbered” and refused to rule out a ground operation in Venezuela. 

Steve Yates, senior research fellow for China and national security policy at The Heritage Foundation, said on “Fox News @ Night” on Wednesday that Machado’s visit overseas was an opportunity to get “greater international support” for her cause, adding that Trump might benefit from having more of America’s allies in Europe support a “non-invasion” approach.

The Venezuelan opposition leader has previously been outspoken in her support for the Trump administration’s actions against Maduro’s regime and the country’s narcotrafficking network.

After the award was announced in October, the newly minted Nobel Peace Prize winner dedicated the award to both Trump and the “suffering people of Venezuela.”

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Machado said during a “Fox & Friends Weekend” interview last month that Venezuela was standing at the “threshold of freedom,” highlighting her new “freedom manifesto” that envisions a future without the Maduro regime.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cities across Israel have taken measures to prepare for Byron, but Palestinian citizens there have no resources.

Israel is bracing itself for heavy downpours and flash floods that Storm Byron is forecast to produce, especially in the coastal areas.

The Israel Meteorological Service said on Thursday that rain is likely to cover cities from northern Israel to the Negev in the south, with floods possible in low-lying cities. Up to 150mm (5.9 inches) of rain is estimated in some coastal areas, with wind gusts of up to 90km/h (56mph).

The Israeli army chief, Eyal Zamir, issued safety guidelines for the military, cancelling all leave until 6am on Friday, prohibiting all outdoor training activities and limiting soldiers to “operational” and “essential” activities.

Israel has been on high alert. Cities across the country have taken measures to prepare for the storm, reinforcing emergency teams and opening shelters in case they are needed.

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen assessed the situation with various government bodies to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply during the storm.

In contrast, unrecognised Bedouin communities in southern Israel are bracing for disaster, hoping for a miracle. Close to 30,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel live in those communities without any basic services, including electricity, water, or infrastructure. Many of the homes and buildings in these communities are under demolition orders. They will face the brunt of the storm without recourse for help from Israeli authorities.

‘Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people’

Recognised non-Jewish towns in the Negev have a tense relationship with the state. On Wednesday, Omar al-Asam, head of the Tal al-Sabe Council, announced a strike to protest against the police blocking off the town’s only entrance and assaulting one of the residents.

“The police’s racist and aggressive conduct is unacceptable, and it goes to show the police’s racist attitude towards Arab citizens across the country, especially in the Negev,” al-Asam told local media.

This tension is a mainstay in Israel’s relationship with its non-Jewish citizens. In 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.”

“According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people – and only it,” Netanyahu wrote on Instagram in response to criticism from Israeli actor Rotem Sela.

This attitude is part of Israel’s institutional discrimination against non-Jewish citizens, amounting to apartheid according to experts and human rights organisations. In the past two years, right-wing politicians have advocated for the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel or conditioning nationality on loyalty. Some have repeatedly attempted to outlaw non-Jewish parties and expel members of Knesset, the Israeli parliament, most recently in June 2025.

Byron poses ‘lot of challenges’

Meanwhile, the occupied West Bank also faces serious challenges from the storm.

Youssef Abu Saadah, the head of the meteorological service in Palestine, told Al Jazeera, “The expected rain from Storm Byron is more than a third of the average yearly rainfall. This poses a lot of challenges.”

He clarified that flood warnings in the Negev are partly because of the downstream from the Hebron hills in the West Bank.

Since the start of the occupation in 1967, Israel has barred Palestinians in the West Bank from collecting rainwater. This means that much of the downpours in the Hebron area will find their way to the Negev.