STORY: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, vowed to return to Venezuela to hand the Nobel Peace Prize to the mothers whose children have fled the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

Speaking in Oslo on Wednesday (December 11) a day after her daughter accepted the award in her name the 58-year-old engineer said she was hopeful Venezuela would soon be free.

Machado 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 went into hiding in 2024 when electoral authorities allied with Maduro declared Maduro's reelection in a vote widely seen as rigged.

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.

During the press conference she said she hoped one day to detail her escape but declined to give details to protect those who helped her reach Norway on Thursday evening when she said she planned to return to Venezuela despite the risks she faces.

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

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A LONGER VERSION OF EDIT 9063 WHICH WENT OUT EARLIER

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

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

1. NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE WITH NORWAY'S PRIME MINISTER JONAS GAHR STORE

2. MACHADO SMILING AND GAHR TALKING

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER 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 we will welcome not 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."

4. WHITE FLASH

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO SAYING:

"Our experience in Venezuela conveys to the world a testimony that certainly in order to have peace, you require democracy, democracy is the system that enables peace in a society. But you cannot have democracy without freedom. And, and freedom is an individual decision, a rational decision. And it is 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."

6. WHITE FLASH

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO SAYING:

"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."

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO SAYING REFERRING TO SEEING HER CHILDREN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE GOING INTO HIDING:

"I couldn't sleep last night, going over and over again that first instant when I saw my children. And for many weeks I had been thinking of that possibility and which one of them I would hug first. And to tell you something, I hugged them the three at the same time. And it's been one of the most extraordinary spiritual moments of my life. And that happened in Oslo. So I'm very grateful to receive something I will never forget, because at the end, I'm just one of millions of Venezuelan mothers that are longing to embrace their children."

9. WHITE FLASH

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO SAYING:

"And I made a promise to them. I would come here on their behalf to receive the prize, and I will take that prize back to them because we will make it what I experienced hours ago. We will make it a reality for every one of those that have the children in jail, persecuted in exile. We will make that happen."

11. MACHADO ADDRESSING THE PRESS CONFERENCE

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO SAYING:

"Look, some people talk about invasion in Venezuela and the threat of an invasion in Venezuela. And I answered Venezuela was has been already invaded. We have the Russian agents. We have the Iranian agents. We have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, operating freely in accordance with the regime. We have the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels that have taken over 60% of our populations and not only involved in drug trafficking, but in human trafficking in networks of prostitution. So this has turned Venezuela into a criminal hub of the Americas. And what sustained the regime is a very powerful and funded, strongly funded repression system. Where does that funds come from? Well, from drug trafficking, from the black market of oil, from arms trafficking for human trafficking. We need to cut those flows."

13. MACHADO AND GHAR STORE LISTENING TO QUESTION

14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO SAYING ASKED IF THE VENEZUELA GOVERNMENT KNEW WHERE SHE WAS HIDING:

"I don't think they have known where I have been. And certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here and actually, I want to take advantage of your question to thank all those men and women that risked their lives so I could be here today. One day I will be able to tell you because for me, I don't want to put them in risk right now. It was quite an experience, but I think it's worthwhile being here with you telling the world what's happening in Venezuela."

15. MACHADO AND GHAR STORE LEAVING