Above the twinkling Christmas lights of Oslo's Grand Hotel, Maria Corina Machado emerged through a small white doorway onto a balcony and a crowd of dozens of supporters erupted into cheers.
Smiling widely with her palms pressed together in front of her face, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate appeared in public on Thursday for the first time in almost a year.
Dressed in jeans and a black puffer jacket, the 58-year-old then pressed one hand to her chest and joined the crowd in singing the Venezuelan national anthem Gloria al Bravo Pueblo — Glory to the Brave People.
It was after 2am in Norway and just 4 degrees Celsius outdoors, but people lined the street to catch a glimpse of Ms Machado.
Within minutes, she had descended from the balcony to greet them with hugs and waves alongside members of her family.
"I want you all back in Venezuela," she said as people lifted their phones to take pictures.
The crowd responded with chants of "gracias Maria" — a message of thanks, "libertad" — the Spanish word for "freedom", and her political slogan "hasta el final", meaning "until the end", which she had used to describe her fight to restore democracy to Venezuela.
Ms Machado had been living in hiding in Venezuela since January, fearful of her safety under the regime of President Nicolás Maduro Moros.
She secretly left Venezuela in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed upon her by the Maduro government, which said earlier that she would be labelled a "fugitive" if she travelled to Norway's capital Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
During her time in exile, tensions between Mr Maduro and the United States have escalated.
US President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of a massive military build-up in the Caribbean Sea, including the world's largest aircraft carrier, and said it was aimed at combating drug trafficking.
For days, Ms Machado's whereabouts were shrouded in mystery after members of the Nobel Committee and Ms Machado's political party, Vente Venezuela, said she would be travelling to Oslo to accept the prize.
While in hiding, Ms Machado released short political messages to her supporters on the party's YouTube channel or appeared on a live news program — always in front of a nondescript white background that gave away no hints regarding her whereabouts.
On Wednesday, local time, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa accepted the honour in her place because Ms Machado was unable to make the committee's awards ceremony in time.
In her speech, read during the award ceremony by Ms Sosa, Ms Machado said the prize held profound significance, not only for her country but for the world.
"It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace," she said.
"And more than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom."
Machado secretly left Venezuela by boat
Ms Machado has been seen in public once since going into hiding in August last year — during a short appearance in January ahead of Mr Maduro's inauguration, at a protest rally. She was briefly detained.
Ahead of the award ceremony, the Nobel Institute said that it was unaware of her whereabouts or whether she would be in Oslo to accept the prize.
Reuters reported on Thursday, local time, that she was able to leave Venezuela by boat on Tuesday, crossing the 65 kilometre stretch of the Caribbean Sea that separates her home nation from neighbouring Curaçao.
She arrived in Oslo on a private jet with the tail number XA-FUF, which Flightradar data showed had flown from Curaçao's capital Willemstad to the city of Bangor in the US state of Maine on Wednesday, before landing in Norway.
Show of solidarity amid fight for democracy
Prominent Latin American political figures were in attendance at the award ceremony, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.
The Nobel Committee announced Ms Machado as the Peace Prize recipient on October 10, when chairperson Jørgen Watne Frydnes said, "Venezuela has evolved into a brutal authoritarian state."
He described her at the time as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in recent Latin American history."
The honour came after Ms Machado won an opposition primary election in 2023 and intended to challenge Mr Maduro at the 2024 presidential election.
But the government barred her from running for office.
She hand-picked former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia — who had never previously run for public office — to stand in her place as the opposition's candidate.
The Venezuelan opposition claimed he went on to defeat Mr Maduro with at least 70 per cent of the vote in his favour.
Venezuela's National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the Maduro regime, declared Mr Maduro the winner.
Mr Gonzalez fled and sought asylum in Spain, and while Ms Machado attended multiple protest rallies after the election, within days she had gone into hiding.
ABC/Wires
