Venezuela’s Machado leaves Oslo after trip to receive Nobel Peace Prize 

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has left Oslo after travelling to Norway in secret last week to collect her Nobel Peace Prize, her spokesperson says.

Machado, a right-wing opposition figure, fractured a vertebra while fleeing Venezuela by boat to receive the award, according to the spokesperson. She was examined by doctors at Oslo University Hospital during her time in the Norwegian capital.

“She is doing well and is currently attending medical appointments with a specialist to ensure her prompt and full recovery,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. He added that Machado was no longer in Oslo but did not disclose her current location.

Machado travelled to Norway in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by Venezuelan authorities and after spending more than a year in hiding. She arrived too late to attend the official Nobel Peace Prize ceremony held last week.

Media reports in the United States said Machado’s escape involved wearing a disguise, including a wig, and travelling from a small Venezuelan fishing village on a wooden boat to the Caribbean island of Curacao before boarding a private plane to Norway.

US forces stationed in the Caribbean were alerted during the voyage to avoid a strike on the vessel.

Machado has previously said she intends to return to Venezuela.

She has been in hiding since she was barred from running in Venezuela’s July 24 presidential election, saying she feared her life was under threat from President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power for more than a decade.

Maduro has accused Washington of seeking to engineer regime change in Venezuela in an effort to seize control of the country’s large oil reserves.