Arya News - Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was given this year`s Nobel Peace Prize in absentia on Wednesday, with her daughter accepting the medal and diploma on her behalf at a ceremony in Oslo. Before members of Norway’s royal family and several South American leaders, including Argentinian President Javier Milei, Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, received the Nobel medal at Oslo City Hall and read the Nobel lecture written by her mother.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was given this year"s Nobel Peace Prize in absentia on Wednesday, with her daughter accepting the medal and diploma on her behalf at a ceremony in Oslo.
Before members of Norway’s royal family and several South American leaders, including Argentinian President Javier Milei, Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, received the Nobel medal at Oslo City Hall and read the Nobel lecture written by her mother.
"This prize carries profound meaning; it reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace," Machado said in the speech. Venezuela’s long and difficult journey, she said, showed that freedom must be fought for if democracy is to be achieved.
"For this reason, the cause of Venezuela transcends our borders," she said, speaking on her mother’s behalf. "A people who choose freedom contribute not only to themselves, but to humanity."
A staunch opponent of Venezuela"s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, Machado was awarded this year"s Nobel Peace Prize in October for her commitment to the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people, to whom she dedicated her award.
Traditionally, the prize is presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards.
There had been uncertainty for weeks about Machado"s participation in the ceremony on Wednesday due to her situation in Venezuela, where she lives in hiding.
Shortly before the start of the ceremony, the Nobel Prize account on X published a short interview with Machado.
"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. "But I will be in Oslo. I"m on my way to Oslo right now."
She said that as soon as she arrives, she will be able to embrace her entire family and her children.
By making the trip, the 58-year-old risks serious repercussions upon returning to her home country.
The institute previously said that she "has done everything in her power to come to the ceremony today. A journey in a situation of extreme danger. Although she will not be able to reach the ceremony and today"s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo."
"I have been accused of every conceivable crime, including terrorism," Machado said in an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK last week. "The regime has made itself very clear. Maduro has said that they will kill me if they catch me."
The Venezuelan public prosecutor"s office recently threatened to consider Machado a fugitive if she left the country due to various investigations into her.
She could face arrest, or an entry ban if she returned to Venezuela from Oslo.
Machado dedicated the award to the "the suffering people of Venezuela" and to US President Donald Trump for his support of the Venezuelan opposition.
Following the announcement of the award, Maduro referred to her as a "demonic witch."
Machado had hoped to challenge Maduro"s presidency, but was excluded from the election in 2024 due to alleged irregularities.
It is extremely rare for winners of the Nobel Prize not to accept their awards in person. Since the prize was first awarded in 1901, only five winners have been denied this honour due to imprisonment in their home countries.
Among them were German journalist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo in 2010, and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023.
Vietnamese politician Lê Đức Thọ is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to date who has refused the prize. He was honoured in 1973 alongside former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger for negotiating an armistice in Vietnam but said he would not accept the award as peace had not been truly established in the country.
The other Nobel Prizes - for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics - are also due to be presented on Wednesday, in Stockholm.
Each prize is endowed with 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.18 million).