OSLO, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said on Friday that Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro would leave power, whether there was a negotiated changeover or not, adding that she was focused on achieving a peaceful transition.
The Venezuelan opposition leader arrived in Oslo early on Thursday, defying a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country, after spending more than a year in hiding.
“Maduro will leave power, whether it is negotiated or not negotiated,” Machado, speaking in Spanish, told a press conference in the Norwegian capital. “I am focused on an orderly and peaceful transition.”
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 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.
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.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Alex Richardson)
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