Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado left Venezuela by boat on Tuesday, heading to Curaçao in an attempt to reach Oslo and receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The Wall Street Journal reported this on Wednesday. According to sources from the US government cited by the newspaper, Machado secretly traveled to the Caribbean island, located less than 80 kilometers from the Venezuelan coast. The Venezuelan opposition leader did not arrive in time for the Nobel Prize ceremony held on Wednesday, but she confirmed she would be in the Norwegian capital within the next few hours. Will Machado return to Venezuela? According to The Wall Street Journal, this trip could force Machado into exile after spending most of the last year in hiding in Venezuela to avoid arrest by the government of Nicolás Maduro. However, Machado has expressed her intention to return to her country «very soon» after her stop in Oslo. Ana Corina Sosa, the Nobel laureate's daughter, accepted the prize on her mother's behalf and delivered her speech at the ceremony. In it, she stated that Venezuela «will breathe again». «We will open the prison doors and see the sun shine on thousands of innocents who were unjustly imprisoned,» Sosa declared from the Oslo City Hall stage, after stating that in «a few hours» she would be able to hug her mother after two years.
