Venezuela says Maria Machado will be considered a fugitive if she goes to Oslo to receive her Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuela's attorney general has said that opposition leader María Corina Machado, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, will be considered a “fugitive” if she leaves the country to receive her award, reports AFP.

Maria Corina Machado, who says she is in Venezuela clandestinely, has announced her intention to travel to Oslo, Norway, to receive the Nobel Prize on December 10.

“Being outside of Venezuela and the subject of several criminal investigations, she is considered a fugitive,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab said, adding that Machado is charged by Venezuelan justice with “acts of conspiracy, incitement to hatred and terrorism.”

He also stated that “over 100 mercenaries”, of “over 30 different nationalities” and “linked to the CIA” are being pursued by Venezuelan prosecutors.

In late October, Caracas announced it had busted a CIA-linked “criminal cell” that allegedly tried to attack the USS Gravely docked in Trinidad and Tobago with the aim of incriminating Venezuela, according to Foreign Minister Yvan Gil.

Washington has mobilized a fleet that includes the world's largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean and Pacific, officially to combat drug trafficking, a deployment that Nicolas Maduro sees as an operation to “impose regime change” in Caracas.

Donald Trump said on Monday that he would talk “at some point” with his Venezuelan counterpart, who said he was willing to talk “face to face” with the US president.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, 58, says Nicolas Maduro stole the July 2024 election that gave him a third six-year term.

The United States and much of the international community did not recognize this outcome.

In a video conference interview with AFP in mid-October, Ms Machado said she was convinced that President Maduro “will leave power, with or without negotiations”.