The extraordinary escape of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado from the grip of Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime to fly to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize involved months of planning, a stealth journey through 10 military checkpoints and a perilous predawn voyage across the Caribbean Sea, according to new details shared by people familiar with the operation and reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Machado said she intends to return home “very soon,” despite the severe risks she faces. Long considered Maduro’s most influential political rival, she had been living in hiding for more than a year in a suburb of Caracas.

The regime had barred her from registering as a presidential candidate and accused her of conspiracy and terrorism — charges widely condemned by international human-rights groups as politically motivated. Venezuela’s attorney general had warned she would be declared a fugitive if she attempted to travel to Norway.

Yet her escape was already underway.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Machado was smuggled out of her safe house shortly before dawn on Monday, wearing a wig and a disguise, then placed into a vehicle headed for the coast. The 75-mile journey to a small fishing village — where a boat had been arranged in advance — took nearly 10 hours. Along the route, the vehicle passed through 10 military checkpoints, each posing a potentially life-threatening risk of arrest. With two helpers beside her, Machado slipped through every control undetected, arriving at the coast just before midnight.

The escape corridor had been established over two months by a Venezuelan network experienced in clandestine evacuations. The group, according to the source, has helped numerous dissidents, activists and ordinary citizens flee the country as political repression has intensified.

But the most dangerous moments awaited them on the water. Before departure, the team made a critical call to the U.S. military to alert American forces stationed in the Caribbean of the vessel’s identity and occupants. In recent months, U.S. airstrikes targeting drug-trafficking boats in the region have struck more than 20 small vessels, causing over 80 deaths. The warning, the person said, was essential to avoid a fatal misunderstanding.

By the time Machado reached Curaçao, the most perilous phase of her escape had passed — but secrecy remained imperative. Even the Nobel Institute, according to the BBC, did not know her whereabouts or whether she would arrive in time for the ceremony. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, ended up accepting the award on her behalf.

When Machado finally appeared on the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, hours after landing in Norway, she was greeted by Venezuelan exiles waving flags and singing the national anthem. Many were seeing her in public for the first time in 16 months.

“For more than 16 months I have not been able to hug or touch anyone,” she told the BBC the next day. “Suddenly, within a matter of hours, I’ve been able to see the people I love most, touch them, cry and pray together.”

Speaking to reporters on Thursday after visiting the Norwegian Parliament, Machado said the journey that brought her to Oslo had been “long and dangerous,” and that dozens of people had risked their lives to help her. She insisted the award belongs to them — and to the Venezuelan people.

“The world is with us, and we are not alone,” she said. “This is a defining moment.”

The president of Norway’s Parliament, Masud Gharahkhani, who welcomed her with an embrace, said the peace prize honors not only Machado’s struggle but “the will of the Venezuelan people, who demanded change in an election that the regime refused to recognize.”

In her public appearances in Oslo, Machado reiterated her longstanding accusations that Maduro presides over a “criminal structure” funded by drug trafficking and human smuggling — allegations the government vehemently denies. She called on the international community to help “cut those flows” and pressure the regime toward democratic transition.

She confirmed she had previously offered to meet with Maduro’s representatives to seek a peaceful resolution, but said “they rejected it.”

Asked about the recent U.S. strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela — the same operations that threatened her escape route — Machado declined to endorse any foreign military action. Instead, she accused the Maduro government of “handing over our sovereignty to criminal organizations.”

Despite her elevated global profile and the threats awaiting her at home, Machado said she is determined to return to Venezuela.

“Of course I am going to return,” she told the BBC. “I know exactly the risks I’m taking. I will be wherever I am most useful to our cause.”

For now, she said she is focused on speaking for the Venezuelans who cannot leave their country — and for those still detained, persecuted or disappeared. But she made clear that her time abroad will be brief.

“This recognition belongs to my country,” she said. “And soon, very soon, I will take it back home.”

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