Nobel winner Machado says she'll return to Venezuela soon and calls for release of political prisoners

Exiled Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has said she will return to her home country of Venezuela soon, as she called for the release of political prisoners.

Ms Machado fled in December, in defiance of a decade-long travel ban.

“I'm planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” she said on Fox News's Hannity in an interview aired late on Monday. “Every day, I make a decision where I am more useful for a cause.”

Ms Machado spoke after Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife were seized at the Miraflores presidential compound in Caracas at the weekend by US forces and transported to New York to face drug and weapons-related charges.

The opposition politician had been in hiding in Venezuela for 16 months before her escape. In a post on X on Tuesday, she called on the new regime to release all political prisoners, saying it was the “first step towards a genuine democratic transition”.

She was awarded the Nobel Prize in October for what the committee called “years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people”.

A popular opposition figure, Ms Machado planned to run for president against Mr Maduro in 2023 after sweeping the primaries, but the government barred her from the ballot. She threw her weight behind fellow opposition politician Edmundo Gonzalez, who the opposition said won the election in 2024 by a landslide.

Mr Maduro's government, however, is believed to have suppressed the results. Protests against the alleged rigging were violently suppressed, dissidents were jailed and Mr Gonzalez fled the country as Ms Machado went into hiding.

“He feared me, Maduro, so he thought that by banning me, he would stop us from winning. But exactly the opposite happened,” she said.

She escaped from Venezuela to accept her Nobel Prize, and dedicated it to US President Donald Trump.

Ms Machado said on Monday that she has not yet spoken to Mr Trump, who expressed scepticism following Mr Maduro's capture that she had the necessary support to form a government.

OAS meeting disrupted by protest

A meeting of the Organisation of American States on the situation in Venezuela was disrupted by a protester, as the US representative took the floor.

“This action was not taken lightly. President Trump offered Maduro multiple off-ramps. Maduro refused to take them,” Leandro Rizzuto Jr told the delegates.

As he spoke, a protester began shouting from the back of the room, accusing the US of illegally invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president. The chairman suspended the session until the protester was removed.

Several countries denounced the US actions in Venezuela, saying they eroded the rule of law and the principle of equality of states. Others, however, hailed the fall of Mr Maduro, accusing him of being a violent dictator.

The OAS meeting comes after an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was called by Colombia and Brazil.

The online meeting revealed deep regional fractures between left and right-wing governments.