{"id":228288,"date":"2025-12-12T00:06:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/228288\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:06:11","slug":"nobel-peace-prize-winner-urges-world-to-cut-flow-of-money-to-venezuelas-repressive-regime-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/228288\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Peace Prize winner urges world to cut flow of money to Venezuela\u2019s repressive regime \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela<\/a>\u2019s opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, in a tacit endorsement of US pressure on president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, has called on the world to cut the flow of money from drugs, arms and human trafficking that she claimed were propping up the country\u2019s authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n

Ms Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize<\/a> on Wednesday, told reporters in Oslo that she was \u201cvery hopeful\u201d that Venezuela would be free, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about US forces seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, which attorney-general Pam Bondi said was transporting sanctioned oil, she answered: \u201cSome people talk about an invasion in Venezuela, and I answer that Venezuela has already been invaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe have Russian agents, Iranian agents, terrorist groups such as Hizbullah, Hamas operating freely in accordance with the regime, we have Colombian guerrillas, the drug cartels … So we ask the international community to cut those sources because the other regimes that support Maduro and the criminal structure are very active.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia has been an important source of weapons for Venezuela over the past two decades and Iran has helped Mr Maduro to rebuild oil refineries. Colombia\u2019s Marxist ELN guerrillas operate from bases inside Venezuela and are involved in cocaine smuggling, according to US and Colombian officials.<\/p>\n

\"MaríaMar\u00eda Corina Machado speaks to the press in Oslo on Thursday. Photograph: Rune Hellestad\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Ms Machado, who has lived in a secret location inside Venezuela for the past 16 months to evade the regime\u2019s security forces, slipped out of the country in disguise to travel to Oslo, where she missed the Nobel Prize ceremony but arrived early on Thursday to an enthusiastic welcome.<\/p>\n

The head of the Nobel committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, called on Mr Maduro to resign on Wednesday, in unusually pointed public comments. Ms Machado also met Norway\u2019s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, who offered his support to her struggle.<\/p>\n

But the prize has also caused some controversy in Norway, with two left-wing parties criticising the award and Ms Machado\u2019s seeming acceptance of US pressure on Mr Maduro. Reporters estimated several hundred people protested against Ms Machado\u2019s prize in central Oslo on Thursday.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Venezuela decries \u2018act of piracy\u2019 after US forces seize oil tanker off country\u2019s coastOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ms Machado said that she could not sleep after landing in Oslo just after midnight as she greeted her three children for the first time in almost two years, following a long and perilous escape from her country.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader slipped away from her hiding place inside Venezuela and travelled with trusted helpers by land to the Caribbean coast, dodging numerous regime checkpoints along the way, according to a person close to her.<\/p>\n

After reaching the sea, Ms Machado boarded a modest boat, which took her about 40 miles in bad weather to the nearby Dutch island of Cura\u00e7ao, where she boarded a jet for the journey to Oslo, the person added.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty surrounding the journey meant that Ms Machado\u2019s team was constantly changing plans, unsure until the last moment whether she would get to Oslo and at what time. Details of her journey were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

During her news conference on Thursday, Ms Machado also underlined how Norway \u2013 the leading oil and gas producer in western Europe, with the world\u2019s largest sovereign wealth fund financed by its petroleum revenues \u2013 was \u201can example\u201d to Venezuela. She said she wanted to turn her country into an \u201cenergy, technological and democracy hub of the Americas\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Machado said that the Maduro regime had been sustained by \u201ca very powerful and strongly funded repression system. Where do those funds come from? From drug trafficking, from the black market for oil, from arms trafficking, from human trafficking. We need to cut those flows. Once it happens and repression is weakened, it\u2019s over. Because it\u2019s the only thing the regime has left \u2013 violence and terror.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, in a tacit endorsement of US pressure on president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,42875,20500,11026,7,8,4450,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-228288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nicolas-maduro","19":"tag-nobel-prize","20":"tag-norway","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-venezuela","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115703682760060025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}