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An image of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado in the course of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony at Oslo Metropolis Corridor, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025.
Ole Berg-Rusten/AP through NTB Scanpix Pool
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Ole Berg-Rusten/AP through NTB Scanpix Pool
OSLO, Norway — Venezuelan opposition chief María Corina Machado ‘s daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her mom’s behalf Wednesday, hours after officers stated Machado would miss the ceremony.
Machado has been in hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after becoming a member of supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, informed the award ceremony that “María Corina Machado has finished every part in her energy to have the ability to attend the ceremony right here at this time — a journey in a scenario of maximum hazard.”
“Though she will be unable to succeed in this ceremony and at this time’s occasions, we’re profoundly completely satisfied to substantiate that she is protected, and that she shall be with us right here in Oslo,” he stated to applause.
The director of the Norwegian Nobel institute and Machado’s spokesperson stated earlier Wednesday that she would not be capable of attend the ceremony. Her daughter Ana Corina Sosa did as a substitute.
María Corina Machado stated in an audio recording of a cellphone name printed on the Nobel web site that many individuals had “risked their lives” for her to reach in Oslo.
“I’m very grateful to them, and it is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan individuals,” she stated earlier than indicating she was about to board a aircraft.
“I do know that there are tons of of Venezuelans from completely different elements of the world that have been capable of attain your metropolis which can be proper now in Oslo, household, my group, so many colleagues,” Machado added.
“And since it is a prize for all Venezuelans, I imagine that it is going to be obtained by them. And as quickly as I arrive, I will embrace all my household and my kids that I’ve haven’t seen for 2 years and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians that I do know that share our wrestle and our struggle.”
Latin American leaders current in solidarity
Distinguished Latin American figures attended Wednesday in a sign of solidarity with Machado, together with 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 wrestle to realize a democratic transition in her South American nation was introduced on Oct. 10, and she or he was described as a girl “who retains the flame of democracy burning amid a rising darkness.”
The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, who will settle for the award on behalf of her mom, Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado, arrives for the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025.
Ole Berg-Rusten/AP through NTB Scanpix Pool
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Ole Berg-Rusten/AP through NTB Scanpix Pool
Machado received an opposition main election and meant to problem President Nicolás Maduro in final yr’s presidential election, however the authorities barred her from working for workplace. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024, election noticed widespread repression, together with disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That elevated after the nation’s Nationwide Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González, who sought asylum in Spain final yr after a Venezuelan court docket issued a warrant for his arrest, attended Wednesday’s ceremony, which was ignored by a big portrait of Machado.
U.N. human rights officers and plenty of unbiased rights teams have expressed issues in regards to the scenario in Venezuela, and known as for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.
Some earlier winners have been unable to attend
5 previous Nobel Peace Prize laureates have been detained or imprisoned on the time of the award, based on the prize’s official web site, most just lately Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023 and Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski in 2022.
The others have been 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 pressured to flee into exile in 2012, stated Machado’s supporters “did the most effective for her to be right here as she deserves. However we knew the danger.”
He added that they’re “dissatisfied that she can’t be within the ceremony, however that is a part of what we do after we struggle towards a dictatorship, a tyranny or a prison regime. So we’re used to it.”
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