María Corina Machado’s daughter accepts the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf to applause: “Venezuela will breathe again”

The daughter of the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado On Wednesday, he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his mother’s behalf, hours after authorities reported that Machado would not attend the ceremony despite being “on his way.”

“I am here on behalf of my mother, María Corina Machado, who united millions of Venezuelans in an extraordinary achievement that you, our hosts, have recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize,” he said. Ana Corina Sosa.

Excited and speaking polished, brilliant English, the young woman faced “the difficult task of giving voice to her mother’s words, the speech she had prepared for the occasion.”

In the speech, he touched on the origins of the Venezuelan people and their greatness, he told the painful story of the arrival of the dictatorship and ultimately the regime’s ban on Machado’s candidacy, as well as the regime’s fraud in the presidential elections, which led to her going underground.

Machado – who did not mention late President Hugo Chávez or his successor and current President Nicolás Maduro – spoke of a “historic plunder” and that oil money was being used to buy “loyalties” abroad “while the state merged with organized crime and international terrorist groups.”

And he also spoke of the “open wound” caused by the emigration of Venezuelans and accused the government of “crushing” the opponents: “They wanted Venezuelans to distrust each other, remain silent and see each other as enemies. They suffocated us, imprisoned us, killed us, drove us into exile.”

But, “Venezuela will breathe again. “We will open the doors of prisons and see the sun rise over thousands of innocent people who were unjustly imprisoned and finally be embraced by those who never stopped fighting for them,” he said, dedicating the award to all Venezuelans and their future. His warm words received an award Big applause and standing ovation.

The young woman had confided in her statement that in “a few hours” she would be able to hug her mother in Oslo and that this was the intention of the opposition leader is expected to return to Venezuela “very soon.”

“I have to say that My mother never breaks a promise. And that is why I can tell you with all the joy in my heart that in a few hours after 16 months we will be able to embrace them here in Oslo,” he said at the Norwegian capital’s town hall.

At the same time, he pointed out that while he waits for the moment to hug and kiss her after two years, he “thinks of the other daughters and sons who cannot see their mothers today.”

“That’s what drives her, what drives all of us. She wants to live in a free Venezuela and will never give up on that goal. That’s why we all know, I know, that she will be back in Venezuela soon,” he said.

Sosa began express “infinite gratitude” On behalf of his family and all of Venezuela, thank the Norwegian Nobel Committee for the fact that “the struggle of an entire people for truth, freedom, democracy and peace is recognized today throughout the world.”

Machado hides and has not been seen in public since January 9thwhen she was briefly arrested after joining supporters at a protest in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

“Maria Corina Machado did everything to be able to take part in the ceremony here today, a journey in a situation of extreme danger,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, at the award ceremony.

“Although he cannot attend this ceremony and today’s events, we are very pleased to confirm that he is doing well will be with us here in Oslohe said to applause.

Maria Corina Machado said in an audio recording of a telephone conversation published on the Nobel website that many people had risked their lives for her to get to Oslo. “I am very grateful to them and this is a testament to what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said before announcing that she was about to board a plane.

“I know that there are hundreds of Venezuelans from different parts of the world who were able to reach their city and are now in Oslo, with their family, my team, so many colleagues,” Machado added.

“And since this is an award for all Venezuelans, I think they will accept it. And once it arrives, I will be able to hug my whole family and my children, whom I have not seen for two years, and so many Venezuelans and Norwegians who I know share our struggle and our struggle.”

Latin American leaders showed their solidarity. Prominent figures from Latin America attended on Wednesday to show solidarity with Machado, including Argentina’s president Javier Mileithe President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa, the President of Panama José Raúl Mulino and the President of Paraguay Santiago Peña.

The prize goes to the 58-year-old for their fight for a democratic transition in her South American country was announced on October 10, when she was described as a woman “keeping the flame of democracy alive amid growing darkness.”

Machado won an opposition primary and had planned to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but The government banned him from running for office. He was replaced by retired diplomat Edmundo González.

The run-up to the July 28, 2024 elections saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That number increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is full of Maduro supporters, declared the incumbent the winner.

González, who sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued an arrest warrant for him, attended Wednesday’s ceremony.

UN human rights officials and many independent human rights groups have expressed concern about the situation in Venezuela and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.

Some previous laureates were unable to attend the five previous Nobel Peace Prize winners were arrested or imprisoned at the time of the award, According to the award’s official website, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was most recently honored in 2023 and Belarusian human rights defender 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 into exile in 2012, said Machado’s supporters “did everything they could to make sure she was here as she deserved. But we knew the risk.”

He added that they are “disappointed that she cannot attend the ceremony, but that is part of what we do when we fight against a dictatorship, a tyranny or a criminal regime. So we are used to it.”