The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate suffered a fractured spine during her escape from Venezuela
Maria Corina Machado Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Scanpix / Profimedia
Venezuelan dissident Maria Corina Machado, laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, suffered a vertebral fracture after her turbulent exit from Venezuela last week, her spokeswoman announced on Monday, reports AFP, taken by News.ro.
“The vertebral fracture is confirmed,” said Claudia Macero, referring to an article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, which originally published the information.
“For the time being, no additional information beyond what is mentioned in the article will be communicated,” she added.
According to Aftenposten, the fracture was caused during transport in a small fishing boat last Monday. The boat trip was very dramatic, not least because of the extremely unfavorable weather conditions, with strong wind and high waves.
After arriving in Norway on Thursday evening, these injuries were examined at Ullevål University Hospital in Oslo, and doctors found several injuries, including a fractured vertebra.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the opponent began her escape on Monday afternoon, disguised and wearing a wig. He first traveled from the outskirts of Caracas, where he had been hiding for a year, to a coastal fishing village. On Tuesday, she made a dangerous crossing of the Caribbean Sea, about which the US military had been warned, to be met on the Dutch island of Curacao by a specialist in this type of operations provided by the Trump administration. On Wednesday, Machado took a private flight to Oslo, the newspaper added.
Her reappearance – her first public appearance in almost a year – comes amid a crisis between Venezuela and the United States, which has deployed a major flotilla in the Caribbean since August, officially to combat drug trafficking, its actions causing 87 deaths.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accuses Washington of wanting to topple him from power in order to confiscate his country's oil. Maria Corina Machado is criticized by some for the closeness between her ideas and those of Donald Trump and supports the current American development.
