By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche
OSLO, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said she planned to take her award back to Venezuela, but declined to say on Thursday when she would return to her home country after leaving in great secrecy to receive the honour.
Venezuelan opposition figure Machado arrived in Oslo early on Thursday, failing to reach the Norwegian capital in time for the prize ceremony held hours earlier. Events for her were also lined up for Thursday.
The 58-year-old engineer had secretly left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities and after spending more than a year in hiding.
“I came to receive the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people and I will take it back to Venezuela at the correct moment,” she told reporters at parliament, dressed in white. “Of course I will not say when that is.”
BARRED FROM RUNNING IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
She was due to hold a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere later.
Following her late-night arrival, Machado greeted dozens of people from the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay, waving and singing the Venezuelan national anthem along with the crowd.
Later, Machado came down to the street and climbed over crowd barriers to hug and shake hands with people who had gathered in the cold for the chance to see her.
Machado was barred from running in the presidential election last year, despite having won the opposition’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August that year after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.
The electoral authority and top court declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner, but international observers and the opposition say its candidate handily won and the opposition has published ballot box-level tallies as evidence of its victory.
ALIGNED WITH HAWKS CLOSE TO TRUMP
When Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, she dedicated it in part to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he himself deserved the honour.
She has aligned herself with hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to U.S. national security, despite doubts raised by the U.S. intelligence community.
The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast.
Sharply escalating tensions even further, Trump said on Wednesday the U.S. has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in a move that sent oil prices higher.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche; writing by Niklas Pollard; editing by Alex Richardson)
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