Thousands of fleeing people embrace in Oslo after years of exile for Machado’s Nobel Prize

Although she did not arrive on time for the ceremony, after leaving on Tuesday on a boat, via Curacao, from Venezuela, she did. He promised, through his children, that it was coming…and that he would greet at dawn, from the balcony of the Grand Hotel.

And so it has been. Around 1:00 a.m. Spanish time, Machado arrived on a plane to Oslo to reunite with her family and an hour and a half later she appeared, visibly tired, to greet her compatriots who had been waiting for a year to be able to see her publicly again after her forced exile.

With her hand on her chest and singing the national anthem, she wanted to show her ability to defy the ban on leaving Venezuela imposed on her by the Maduro regime to meet those who consider her their leader on a day when they honored her for her sacrifice for peace.

Subsequently, she decided to go down to the street to directly greet the people who wanted to support her at this moment, even ignoring the security protocol and jumping over the fences that protected the entrance to the Grand Hotel.

Thousands of exiled Venezuelans, dispersed around the world for years, converged on the Norwegian capital to celebrate “the tireless fight” of Machado between shouts of thanks, of “Long live Venezuela”, “Strength, Maria!” and “Freedom!”

What began as a formal ceremony at city hall gradually transformed into “a historic reunion of a nation that will rise from the ashes of political persecution and forced exile.”

David Smolanskydemocratic leader and OAS commissioner for Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees, captured the magnitude of the moment with a phrase that resonated emotionally from the Nordic streets: “This will be a day that will be studied in the history of Venezuela, today the eyes of the world are herewith us.”

It was not a rhetorical exaggeration. It was the realization that something definitive and irreversible was happening at that precise moment.

Machado’s physical absence from the ceremony did not diminish the emotional impact of the event.

Your daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machadohad gone up to the stage in Oslo City Hall to read the winner’s speech. Jose Antonio Vegarepresentative of Vente Venezuela in Spanish exile, captured the message, describing it as deeply meaningful.

“It has been exciting to listen to the speech of María Corina’s daughter, when collecting the award on behalf of her mother,” Vega explained. “Nails beautiful wordsfull of admiration for their mother, pronounced as daughter and as Venezuelan in the diasporain his case in the United States”.

Broken voice

Ana Corina’s voice had broken when evoking her mother’s struggle and the resilience of the Venezuelan people.

The audience, largely made up of Venezuelan exiles and democratic leaders from across Latin America, felt every pause, “every word loaded with emotion held back for years.” Many cried remembering the sacrifice of the democratic leader.

“It has been the reunion of a townof thousands of exiles who had been abroad for seven or eight years, without seeing each other except through a screen“said Smolansky marching among the torches, his voice still trembling.

Los hugs between strangers who recognized each other Because of their shared language, their common pain, they filled the squares of Oslo for hours. Others They hadn’t seen each other since they left Venezuela.forced to disperse in search of freedom and economic opportunity.

Torch march in Oslo, for the Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado

“We hugged each other full of hope for a free Venezuela“continued Smolansky, describing the atmosphere that enveloped the Norwegian capital. “Venezuela has taken an enormous step today, and we have remembered full of pride to the fallen, to the political prisoners, to the millions in exileknowing that all this sacrifice will not be in vain.”

The torch march, “a tradition since 1954,” Vega recalled, was the most powerful visual symbol of the night. Thousands of lights ran through the Nordic streets while they sang slogans in Spanishthey wore tricolor flags agitated in the wind and hugged each other through tears.

It was not just a political demonstration. Was “an act of collective resurrection”the catharsis of a diaspora that felt that its struggle was finally recognized by the world.

“Years of strategy”

Vega offered revealing details of how María Corina managed to escape the country. “She had been designing her exit strategy for years, hoping that it would never be neededbut foreseeing that one day his figure in the world would be capital outside the country, as it has been today.”

The 58-year-old engineer left Venezuela on a boat on Tuesdayarriving at the Caribbean island of Curacao before traveling to Oslo with the help of the United States Government.

The escape was operationally complex and required last minute decisionswhich explain the delay.

“We still cannot give details of how their extraction from the territory has been, but it has been with a lot of sufferingthe tactics had to be changed at the last minute, and that is why she was not able to collect the award herself,” Vega said. “But we know it’s okayand that he was still on his way to Oslo”.

The ceremony was attended by political figures from all over Latin America.

Next to Edmundo Gonzalezelected president of Venezuela, from whom the Nicolás Maduro regime stole the 2024 elections, the presidents of Argentina attended, Javier Miley; from Panama, José Raúl Mulino; from Paraguay, Santiago Pena; and from Ecuador, Daniel Noboaaccompanied thousands of Venezuelan democrats gathered in Oslo.

Former presidents like Ivan Duque from Colombia, Sebastian Piñera of Chile, and Spanish political figures such as Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Beatriz Becerra joined the historic act… but “no representative” of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, who has not congratulated the Nobel winner.

Applause on the plane

When Machado’s children, Ana Corina and Ricardo Sosathey went out to the balcony to thank the gathered masses, the moment reached its emotional peak.

“It was a very moving image for everyone, of proud children, happy for the union that drives the fight of their mother, whom they had not yet seen for more than two years“Smolansky described the scene, which was recorded in the retinas of thousands of those present.

Vega shared a detail that moved him since he took off from Madrid 24 hours before. “When leaving Barajas, on Tuesday, the plane commander greeted us over the public address systemonce the route is stabilized”.

The commander of the plane greets the Venezuelan delegation on the way to Oslo.

Even the airport staff seemed aware that they were traveling towards a defining moment in Venezuela’s recent history. “The scene was beautiful and emotionalprovoking applause from the entire passage”.

The question that floats now is If Machado will be able to return to Venezuela or if this day marks an irreversible turning point.

Vega was cautious but hopeful: “She wants to return, and the strategy is designed, We will see how it can be done… and if it can be done“, he ventured, anticipating that the United States will accelerate its intervention against the Chavista regime.

“It has been a long time of struggle and suffering, but it’s getting closer“Smolansky concluded as thousands of Venezuelans marched through the Nordic streets with lit torches, demanding a future that this Wednesday seemed a little closer.