Oslo, Norway — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado missed the ceremony to award her the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Wednesday, but said she was on her way to the Norwegian capital and would arrive soon to embrace her family for the first time in months.
Machado, who’s fight against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom she, the U.S. and many other nations consider an illegitimate leader, has forced her to live in hiding, last appeared in public 11 months ago. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the prize on her behalf at the Oslo ceremony, saying her mother would return to Venezuela soon after coming to Norway on Wednesday.
“Freedom is not something we wait for, but something we become,” the younger Machado told those gathered for the ceremony in a speech written by her mother. “Loving a country means taking responsibility for its future.”
The Nobel institute posted audio on its YouTube channel of a phone call between Machado and the institute’s director Jørgen Watne Frydnes, in which she told him she was on her way to Oslo, but wouldn’t make the award ceremony.
“On behalf of the Venezuelan people, once again, I want to thank the Norwegian Nobel Committee for this immense recognition to the fight of our people for democracy and freedom. We feel very emotional and very honored, and that’s why I am very sad and very sorry to tell you that I won’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony,” she said in the call, adding: “But I will be in Oslo and I’m on my way to Oslo right now.”
Jonathan Lanza/NurPhoto
“As soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I’ve have not seen for two years, and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians, that I know that share our struggle and our fight. So, thank you very much and I’ll see you very soon.”
Nobel Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken said four days ago that Machado confirmed to him that she would attend the ceremony, though he said at the time that, “given the security situation, we cannot say more about the date or how she will arrive.”
Prominent Latin American figures attended Wednesday’s ceremony in a signal of solidarity with Machado. Among those expected were Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.
Machado has been living in hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The 58-year-old’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10, and she was described as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024 election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.
Five past Nobel Peace Prize laureates were detained or imprisoned at the time of the award, according to the prize’s official website, most recently Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023 and Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski in 2022.
The others were Liu Xiaobo of China in 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar in 1991 and Carl von Ossietzky of Germany in 1935.
“There is a long tradition that when a Peace Prize laureate cannot be present, close family members represent them,” Harpviken said. “That happened with Narges Mohammadi, and with Ales Bialiatski; both were imprisoned at the time. And the same will happen with Maria Corina Machado today. The daughter will deliver the statement her mother has written.”
