Maria Corina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who recently fled Venezuela in a risky extraction, urged intensified international pressure so that Nicolás Maduro "understands he has to go." She emphasized that this is not a conventional regime-change operation, arguing that an election already gave over 70% of Venezuelans a mandate for change. Machado's escape — code-named "Golden Dynamite" — included a fishing-boat rendezvous with U.S. Army veteran Bryan Stern and a two-hour drift after the boat's GPS fell overboard. She arrived in Oslo from Curaçao and said she will return the prize to the Venezuelan people; the full CBS interview airs Sunday.
Machado Urges Intensified Pressure So Maduro 'Understands He Has To Go' — Nobel Laureate's Dramatic Escape
Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado greets supporters from a balcony of the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, early on December 11, 2025 (Odd ANDERSEN)(Odd ANDERSEN/AFP/AFP)
Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a leading opposition figure, is calling for intensified international pressure to force President Nicolás Maduro from power, according to an excerpt of an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation released Friday.
Asked about the possibility of U.S. military intervention, Machado — who recently fled Venezuela in a risky, clandestine operation and received the Nobel Prize in Oslo this week — said she would welcome growing pressure so that "Maduro understands that he has to go, that his time is over."
'I will welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go, that his time is over,'
The remarks come amid a sustained U.S. show of force in the region, including a significant naval buildup and strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels that officials say have killed nearly 90 people. Machado, 58, said she was not aware of any specific U.S. plans and reiterated that any removal of Maduro should not be treated as a conventional regime-change operation.
'I will insist on something that I've said several times before: this is not conventional regime change,'she said, adding that more than 70 percent of Venezuelans signaled a desire for change in an election and that international support is now needed to help enforce that mandate.
Maduro, a leftist leader, began a third six-year term after an election last year that the opposition contends it won. Machado was barred from running and went into hiding after the vote.
Her escape from Venezuela this week read like a spy thriller. The extraction was reportedly code-named "Golden Dynamite", a nod to Alfred Nobel. Machado wore a wig as she left a Caracas hideout, slipped past 10 military checkpoints according to her rescuer, and traveled to a beach in northern Venezuela where she boarded a fishing boat for a rendezvous at sea with U.S. Army veteran Bryan Stern.
The journey was fraught with complications. The fishing boat had been deliberately chosen for its shabby appearance so it would not be mistaken for the 'go-fast' drug boats targeted by recent airstrikes; that choice backfired when the vessel broke down and delayed departure for hours. Rough seas helped conceal the craft from aerial surveillance but also caused the boat's GPS to fall overboard, leaving Machado adrift for roughly two hours, according to witness accounts compiled by multiple news outlets.
'There were moments when I felt that there was a real risk to my life,' Machado told reporters in Oslo, where she arrived early Thursday by private jet from the Caribbean island of Curaçao.
In the CBS excerpt she declined to provide additional operational details of her escape, saying she would not disclose more but stressing the symbolic importance of the award for Venezuelans.
'This is a recognition to a nation that has fought tirelessly, courageously against a criminal, narcoterrorist structure,'she said, adding:
'I came to receive that prize, that award, and I'm going to bring it back home to the Venezuelan people as soon as possible.'
The full CBS interview is scheduled to air on Sunday.
