Nobel laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will be considered a “fugitive” if she emerges from hiding to collect the honor in Norway, Venezuela’s attorney general told Agence France-Presse on Thursday. Machado has expressed interest in attending the ceremony, which will be held in Oslo on December 10. “By being outside Venezuela and having numerous criminal investigations, she is considered a fugitive,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab told the AFP. Saab added that Machado is accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, terrorism,” and noted that she is under investigation for her support of the United States’ deployment of military forces in the Caribbean. Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize last month 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.” The Nobel Committee called Machado a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided” and “a brave and committed champion of peace.” It was Venezuela’s first Nobel Prize. Known as Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” the 58-year-old Machado has spent more than two decades leading a massive political movement challenging the country’s authoritarian leaders. She has been in hiding in Venezuela since the country’s 2024 election.Venezuela has been ruled by an autocratic regime for decades and is currently led by President Nicolas Maduro, whose election in 2024 was widely dismissed as non-democratic. His leadership is not recognized by many nations, including the United States. Instead, the U.S. recognized Senator Edmundo Gonzalez, an opposition politician backed by Machado, as the legitimate winner of the election. Gonzalez has since left Venezuela. The Trump administration has accused Maduro of working with drug smuggling gangs, and tensions have only grown amid strikes on alleged drug boats and U.S. military assets being moved into the Caribbean. Machado has supported the efforts, calling the increased military pressure a “necessary measure” toward the “restoration of popular sovereignty in Venezuela.”Machado told CBS News in an exclusive interview last month that she believed winning the Nobel would give her “a lot of protection” from the Maduro regime. “But the most important thing, is that it highlights, worldwide, the importance of the struggle of Venezuela,” Machado said.
