Copenhagen [Denmark], December 12: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrived in Oslo in the early hours of Thursday, after being honoured in absentia at the previous day's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
Early morning footage showed her appearing on a balcony of the Grand Hotel, before greeting supporters gathered outside in the Norwegian capital. Earlier, they had sung the Venezuelan national anthem and chanted "libertad, libertad" (freedom).
According to a media report, the 58-year-old left Venezuela with her entourage by passing various military posts in disguise and wearing a wig.
She reportedly travelled from a suburb of Caracas to the Venezuelan coast, where she was taken by fishing boat to the Caribbean island of Curaçao and finally flew via the United States to Norway by private jet.
She later described an emotional reunion with her adult children.
"I couldn't sleep last night going over and over again the first instant when I saw my children," the Venezuelan opposition leader said on Thursday at a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
Machado said she had longed for that moment for weeks, wondering which of her grown-up children she would hug first. "I hugged them the three at the same time, and it has been one of the most extraordinary, spiritual moments of my life," she said.
On Wednesday, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf at the official award ceremony in Oslo's City Hall.
The Venezuelan government criticized the Nobel Prize ceremony as a political stunt. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on state television: "It looked like a wake, it was a total failure. The show failed because the lady [Machado] did not show up."
Rodríguez described Machado's award as "a bloodstained prize."
Machado received this year's prize "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy." She also read the Nobel lecture that Machado had written for the occasion.
"This prize carries profound meaning; it reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace," Machado said in the speech.
Venezuela's long and difficult journey, she said, showed that freedom must be fought for if democracy is to be achieved.
Machado repeated the message in person on Thursday.
"Our experience in Venezuela conveys to the world a testimony that in order to have peace, you require democracy," she said. "Democracy is the system that enables peace in a society. But you cannot have democracy without freedom."
A central figure of the Venezuelan opposition, Machado was a driving force behind last year's campaign of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, whom government critics and several foreign governments view as the rightful winner of the presidential election.
Despite widespread fraud allegations, President Nicolas Maduro declared himself the victor.
Source: Qatar Tribune
