STORY: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Thursday (December 11) she was hopeful her country would become “a beacon of hope and democracy” as she spoke publicly for the first time since receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Machado had failed to reach the Norwegian capital in time to receive her award at a ceremony held hours earlier.

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.

Machado greeted on Thursday 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.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE, MARIA CORINA MACHADO AND NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER, JONAS GAHR STORE, HOLDING PRESS CONFERENCE

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: OSLO, NORWAY (DECEMBER 11, 2025) (REUTERS - Access All)

1. VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE, MARIA CORINA MACHADO AND NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER, JONAS GAHR STORE, WALKING ON STAGE

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE, MARIA CORINA MACHADO, SAYING:

"I am very hopeful Venezuela will be free and we will turn a country into a beacon of hope and opportunity of democracy. And while we will welcome that only the Venezuelans that have been forced to flee, but citizens from all over the world that will find a refuge, as Venezuela used to be decades ago."

3. MACHADO TALKING

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE, MARIA CORINA MACHADO, SAYING:

"Freedom is an individual decision, a rational decision. And it’s this, the sum of these individual conscious decisions, that bring that collective ethos that creates the force, the strength and the courage to fight for freedom, to defend when you got it. And that courage comes from the things that truly matter in your life, the things that you love. And when you feel that those things are most endangered, then the courage increases. That's why I am convinced that peace ultimately is an act of love."

5. MACHADO TALKING

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE, MARIA CORINA MACHADO, SAYING:

"And I believe there's no other generation in the history of Venezuela that us that loves more freedom, our family and our social territory, the possibility of actually being in your homeland and moving freely in your homeland, because we have lost that. And as I mentioned to you, the force that brought this country, our nation, together was this longing that we want our children back home. And we will not stop until they do that. And we give them a country in which they can live with dignity, with justice, and the responsibility that comes with freedom."

7. MACHADO AND STORE WALKING OFF STAGE