Machado I will return to Venezuela with Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has said she will take her award to Venezuela, but has not given a specific date for when she will return home after secretly leaving the country to accept the award.

Machado, an opposition leader to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, arrived in Oslo early Thursday, missing the award ceremony that was scheduled to take place hours earlier.

The 58-year-old engineer secretly left Venezuela after defying a decade-long travel ban imposed by the Venezuelan government and living in hiding for more than a year.
Speaking to reporters at Norway’s parliament, Machado, dressed in white, said: “On behalf of the Venezuelan people, I have come to accept this award and I will take it back to Venezuela at the appropriate time.” He did not say when that would be.

Nobel Peace Prize Dedicated to US President Donald Trump

After winning the Nobel Peace Prize in October, Machado partially dedicated the award to US President Donald Trump. Trump himself has said he deserves the award.

Machado has aligned himself with hardliners close to Trump who claim that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has criminal links that pose a direct threat to US national security, although US intelligence officials are skeptical.

Machado was asked at a news conference whether he would support a US military intervention in Venezuela. He said his country was already under “attack” from Russian and Iranian agents and drug cartels.
“This has made Venezuela the epicenter of crime in the Americas,” he said. “And this regime is sustained by a very powerful and well-funded repressive system. Where does that money come from? From drug trafficking, the black market in oil, arms trafficking and human trafficking. We have to stop these money flows,” Machado said, standing next to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Storr.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Venezuela’s information ministry on Machado’s statement.