Machado has long denounced President Nicolás Maduro’s government as “criminal” and called on Venezuelans to unite to depose it.
She has long been one of the most respected voices in the country’s opposition but was barred from running in last year’s presidential elections, in which Maduro won a third six-year term in office. Many nations view his rule as illegitimate.
Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general said Machado would be considered a fugitive if she travelled to Norway to collect her prize, saying she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism”.
The details of her journey from Venezuela to Norway were kept so tightly under wraps, that even the Nobel Institute did not know where she was or whether she would be in Oslo in time to collect her award at the prize ceremony.
Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, had described her journey as “a situation of extreme danger”.
Sitting next to her during the BBC interview, Frydnes said it was an “emotional” moment.
“In the middle of the night to have you here, it’s incredible,” he said. “It’s hard to describe what it means to the Nobel committee and to all of us.”
The Wall Street Journal, external reports that to escape Venezuela, Machado wore a disguise, managed to get through 10 military checkpoints without being caught, and left on a wooden fishing skiff at a coastal fishing village.
The plan was two months in the making, it reports, citing a person close to the operation, and she was assisted by a Venezuelan network that helps people flee the country. The US was also involved, the report says, but it is unclear to what extent.
However Machado did not give details of her journey when asked by the BBC.
“They [the Venezuelan government] say I’m a terrorist and have to be in jail for the rest of my life and they’re looking for me,” she said. “So leaving Venezuela today, in these circumstances, is very, very dangerous.
“I just want to say today that I’m here, because many men and women risked their lives in order for me to arrive in Oslo.”
After her Peace Prize win, Machado made a point to praise US President Donald Trump, who is open about his own ambitions for the Peace Prize and is locked in ongoing military tension with Venezuela.
On Wednesday, he announced the US military had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a sharp escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.
The Trump administration alleges the vessel was under sanction and was involved in an “illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations”.
The Venezuelan government accused the US of theft and piracy.