Nobel laureate Machado arrives in Oslo hours after award ceremony

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado arrived in Oslo hours after the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, where she had been honoured in absentia on Wednesday.

Footage broadcast early Thursday showed her appearing on a balcony of the Grand Hotel before greeting supporters gathered outside in the Norwegian capital. Earlier, they had sung the Venezuelan national anthem and chanted "libertad, libertad" (freedom).

According to media reports, Machado first travelled by boat from Venezuela to the Caribbean island of Curaçao and then flew to Norway via the United States in a private jet.

Machado received this year's Nobel Peace Prize "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy."

As she did not reach Oslo in time for the ceremony, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado accepted the award on her behalf at City Hall.

The Venezuelan government criticized the Nobel Prize ceremony as a political stunt. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on state television: "It looked like a wake, it was a total failure. The show failed because the lady [Machado] did not show up."

Rodríguez described Machado's award as "a bloodstained prize."

A central figure of the Venezuelan opposition, Machado was a driving force behind last year's campaign of opposition candidate Edmundo González, whom government critics and several foreign governments view as the rightful winner of the presidential election.

Authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, however, declared himself the victor despite widespread fraud allegations.

González later fled to Spain and many other opposition figures have also left the country.

Machado is under investigation in Venezuela on charges including treason and had spent more than a year largely in hiding before her trip to Oslo.

Prosecutors previously said she would be considered a fugitive if she left the country. On returning to Venezuela, she could face arrest or be denied entry.