Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado stated that she will return to her home country as soon as possible. “I am fighting for that, and no matter what this regime does: it cannot stop me. One day I will be back. The question is not if, but only when,” she told Spiegel.
The 58-year-old had secretly traveled to Norway last December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She recently revealed the details of her transit to the publication. She recounted driving to the coast in a car, appearing in “sunscreen and a blonde wig,” before boarding a boat. “It was horrifying. It was pouring down and storming, eventually we were drifting completely lost on the open sea. The navigation device stopped working, the satellite phone didn’t either, and the Starlink antenna received no signal,” she described. One time, when the boat plunged into a meter-deep wave trough, she landed on a metal plank. She couldn’t breathe and didn’t realize at the moment her spinal vertebra was broken. A second boat, waiting on the ocean, brought Machado to Curacao, from where she flew on to Oslo.
Machado had originally hoped to take control of her native country when US President Donald Trump had arranged for Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, to be arrested and taken to New York earlier this year. However, the US government installed Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez.
She noted that she had already attempted to return following the earthquakes in June. “I sensed that I had to be with the people. I tried twice, but it was impossible. The regime decided that. Furthermore, I didn’t receive the support I needed.”
Machado advocates for a swift democratic transition. Her most important demand is a viable roadmap for presidential elections. This roadmap must include placing independent and honorable individuals in charge of the National Electoral Council, which organizes and supervises the entire voting process, as stipulated by the constitution.
