Machado has long denounced President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro’s government as “criminal” and called on Venezuelans to unite to depose it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general said Machado would be considered a fugitive if she travelled to Norway<\/a> to collect her prize, saying she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism”.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, had described her journey as “a situation of extreme danger”.<\/p>\n Sitting next to her during the BBC interview, Frydnes said it was an “emotional” moment. <\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n