Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 15, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleMaria Corina Machado, Nobel laureate, injured fleeing Venezuela to attend Oslo ceremony, defying a travel ban.
OSLO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado fractured a vertebra while fleeing Venezuela on a small boat last week to receive the award in Oslo, a spokesperson for the opposition leader said on Monday, confirming a Norwegian media report.
Machado went to Norway in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding, but arrived too late for Wednesday's official prize ceremony.
Doctors examining her in Oslo had since diagnosed a fracture in her back, Norwegian daily Aftenposten reported, citing anonymous sources.
The injury was sustained amid rough weather during the boat trip, according to the report.
A spokesperson for Machado told Reuters the Aftenposten report was accurate, but declined to give further details.
The laureate left Venezuela by boat early last week and travelled to the Caribbean island of Curacao, from where she departed on a private plane via the United States to Norway, a person familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.
Machado has said she plans to return to Venezuela, and that her aim is to achieve a peaceful transition of government from President Nicolas Maduro.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Anna Ringstrom, Terje Solsvik Editing by Alex Richardson)
The Nobel Peace Prize is an international award given annually to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to peace efforts. It was established by the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in 1895.
A vertebra is one of the individual bones that make up the vertebral column, or spine. The spine is crucial for supporting the body and protecting the spinal cord.
A spokesperson is an individual who speaks on behalf of an organization or public figure, conveying messages to the public and the media. They often handle communications and public relations.
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