Nobel winner Machado suffered vertebra fracture leaving Venezuela / Photo: © AFP
Nobel winner Machado suffered vertebra fracture leaving Venezuela
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado suffered a vertebra fracture during her secret journey out of hiding in Venezuela to Norway last week, her spokesperson said Monday.
Machado previously said she feared for her life during the perilous voyage to receive her Nobel in Oslo.
Norwegian daily Aftenposten said the injury was sustained during a high-risk sea crossing in a small fishing boat battered by high waves.
"The vertebra fracture is confirmed," Machado's spokeswoman Claudia Macero said.
"For the moment, no additional information will be disclosed other than what is in the (Aftenposten) article," she said.
The newspaper reported that Machado had been examined by doctors at Oslo University Hospital in Ulleval.
After arriving in Oslo in the early hours of Thursday, the 58-year-old had on several occasions said she wanted to see a doctor, without providing any medical details.
She had been due to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in the Norwegian capital on Wednesday, but was delayed and did not make it in time.
Her fracture did not stop her from climbing over a barrier to greet supporters outside her hotel shortly after her arrival, witnessed by AFP journalists.
Machado has accused President Nicolas Maduro of stealing Venezuela's July 2024 election, from which she was banned -- a claim backed by much of the international community.
She had lived in hiding in Venezuela since August 2024 after challenging his rule.
Caracas has said it would consider her a fugitive if she left the country, and she has provided few details about how she managed to leave Venezuela.
According to reports, she wore a wig and disguise to get from Caracas to the northern coast and drove through 10 checkpoints without being caught.
- 'In God's hands' -
Bryan Stern, who heads a nonprofit rescue organisation, claims he was part of the extraction team that helped Machado get out, in an operation dubbed "Golden Dynamite".
Once she arrived at the coast, she boarded a small wooden fishing boat, chosen to avoid raising suspicions or risk being targeted by US airstrikes on suspected drug trafficking boats.
The skiff first wouldn't start, then lost its GPS signal.
She was then transferred, soaking wet and shivering, to another boat at sea, where Stern met her before they embarked on a 13-14 hour journey.
That boat took her to Curacao, where she boarded a private jet to Oslo with a short stop in the United States on the way.
She told AFP on Friday that she feared for her life during the journey.
"There were moments when I felt that there was a real risk to my life, and it was also a very spiritual moment because, in the end, I simply felt that I was in God's hands and that whatever would be, would be," she told reporters in Oslo.
(U.Kabuchyn--DTZ)
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