Venezuelan Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado left the country Tuesday by speedboat and traveled to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, according to US officials, in a secret trip that her allies worked hard to keep hidden to protect her safety.

The opposition leader was unable to collect her Nobel Peace Prize in person at Wednesday's ceremony, but said she would travel to Oslo, allaying concerns about her safety after the Nobel committee said it did not know her whereabouts.

Traveling to the Norwegian capital could force Machado into exile. She has spent most of the past year hiding in Venezuela to avoid arrest.

In a phone call with the chairman of the Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, published on the Peace Prize website, Machado stated that many people had risked their lives so that she could travel to Oslo.

I am very grateful to you. And this is a testament to what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people, she declared, adding that she was about to board a plane. “We feel very excited and very honored, and that is why I am very sad and sorry to tell you that I will not be able to arrive in time for the ceremony, but I will be in Oslo and I am on my way to Oslo right now.”

The Nobel Committee did not specify when the phone call took place or where Machado was at the time. Hours earlier, the institute's director, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that getting Machado to Oslo had been more complicated than expected.

He lives under a death threat from the regime, pure and simple, he declared. It extends beyond the borders of Venezuela, beyond the regime and its associates around the world.

In Norway, Machado, a prominent long-time opponent of the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, will reunite with her three children, who live outside of Venezuela for their safety.

"As soon as I arrive, I will be able to hug my whole family and my children, whom I haven't seen in two years, and so many Venezuelans and Norwegians I know who share our struggle," he declared.

His daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the award on his behalf at Oslo City Hall.

“Nearly nine million Venezuelans have had to leave,” Sosa said at the ceremony. “And what drives us every day is the love for family and the idea that we will soon be reunited in a free country. And that is what I also hope to do with my mother, whom I haven’t seen in two years.”

Machado recently told NRK that she was doing everything possible to travel to Norway and return to her country, despite the difficulties of both leaving and returning to Venezuela.

Machado has been a fearless defender of democracy in a country that has gone from a semi-authoritarian state to a brutal dictatorship in the last 20 years. Announcing the prize, Nobel Committee Chairman Frydnes described Machado as a “courageous and committed advocate for peace… who keeps the flame of democracy alive amid growing darkness.”

Numerous US officials and lawmakers, as well as foreign leaders, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, and Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, had gathered in Oslo to await his arrival.

Machado dedicated her Nobel Prize to the Venezuelan people and President Trump, thanking him for his strong support of our cause.

At Wednesday's ceremony, on behalf of her mother, Sosa thanked the Venezuelan activists, journalists, and artists who have fought for democracy in the country.

The United States has increased pressure on Maduro to step down. The Trump administration has deployed the largest US military presence in the region in decades off the coast of Venezuela and has authorized deadly attacks on suspected drug-trafficking vessels.

Trump has threatened further military action against Venezuela, including ground attacks.

Trump has also offered Maduro the opportunity to leave the country, as previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, although the 63-year-old Venezuelan dictator has not accepted it.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Maduro has sought to demonstrate his willingness to cooperate with the Trump administration to remain in power. He has accepted more than 14,000 Venezuelans on deportation flights from the United States and has released all remaining American detainees.

In May, a US-backed operation rescued five of Machado's aides from a besieged Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas and brought them to the United States, along with the opposition leader's mother. While the US and the opposition portrayed it as a clandestine rescue, the Maduro government claimed it was a negotiated exit.

For Machado, leaving the country carries the risk of diminishing her influence, as has happened to several opposition leaders forced into exile in the past. Venezuela's Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, has stated that Machado will be considered a fugitive if she travels to Norway.

“I want to assure you and all Venezuelans that I will return,” he declared last week to Norway’s national broadcaster.

Machado, 58, is a conservative and cites former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as an inspiration. She has maintained close ties with the Trump administration and with Republican presidents since George W. Bush, and has often advocated for Washington to confront the Venezuelan government more firmly.