BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado plans to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Wednesday. But the ceremony comes at an awkward moment because Machado appears to have given up on using peaceful means to dislodge Venezuela's authoritarian regime.

Machado now claims that elections in Venezuela are a sham that will never lead to the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro. She has also emerged as a full-throated supporter of President Trump's gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean Sea, including his threats to remove Maduro by force.

"Most people interpret the Nobel Peace Prize as (going to) someone who works through peaceful means, and that doesn't fit her very well," says David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University.

Yet Machado is a revered figure a

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