Since January 9, Machado has remained out of the public eye, living in seclusion following a brief detention. She had joined protesters in Venezuela during a demonstration.
WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the Nobel Peace Prize was accepted by María Corina Machado’s daughter on behalf of her mother. The presentation took place just hours after it was disclosed that Machado would be unable to attend the event.
Machado has stayed hidden since January 9, after being detained for a short period when she participated in a protest in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
During the ceremony, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, remarked that “María Corina Machado has exerted all efforts to be present at this ceremony today—attempting a journey fraught with danger.”
“Even though she cannot join today’s ceremony, we are delighted to confirm her safety, and she intends to join us here in Oslo in the near future,” Frydnes announced to the audience’s applause.
Earlier on Wednesday, both the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Machado’s spokesperson confirmed that she would not be attending the event. Representing her, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa stepped in to accept the honor.
María Corina Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.
“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said before indicating she was about to board a plane.
“I know that there are hundreds of Venezuelans from different parts of the world that were able to reach your city that are right now in Oslo, family, my team, so many colleagues,” Machado added.
“And since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them. And 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.”
Latin American leaders present in solidarity
Prominent Latin American figures attended Wednesday in a signal of solidarity with Machado, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.
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, who sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest, attended Wednesday’s ceremony, which was overlooked by a large portrait of Machado.
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.
Some previous winners have been unable to attend
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.
Gustavo Tovar-Arroyo, a Venezuelan human rights activist who was forced to flee into exile in 2012, said Machado’s supporters “did the best for her to be here as she deserves. But we knew the risk.”
He added that they are “disappointed that she cannot be in the ceremony, but this is part of what we do when we fight against a dictatorship, a tyranny or a criminal regime. So we are used to it.”
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