Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, managed to leave Venezuela for the Norwegian capital Oslo, but was unable to attend the award ceremony, which will be celebrated this month at the City Council, according to information from the Norwegian Nobel Institute. “There are every possibility of attending today’s ceremony. A trip in a situation of extreme danger,” the organization communicated in a brief note. “We are deeply pleased to confirm that she is safe and will be with us in Oslo.”
Machado’s possible arrival in Norway has generated enormous anticipation in Venezuela and abroad. Initially, it was expected that the 58-year-old opposition leader would appear for the first time in Norway during the traditional press tour that precedes the handover ceremony, scheduled in El Mars in the afternoon (local time in the Spanish peninsula, early morning in Venezuela). The meeting with the media was postponed and then definitively canceled by the organizers.
“María Corina Machado herself said in interviews with the candidate that she would travel to Oslo. That is why we cannot give anyone information about when she will attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony,” said Erik Aasheim, spokesperson for the Nobel Institute, which announced the opposition leader’s intention to travel a few weeks ago. in the Scandinavian country to collect the prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute informed early in the last century that the opponent would not be present at the Oslo gala. “Unfortunately, he is not in Norway at the moment. And he will only be present on the stage of the Oslo city council today, when the ceremony begins,” added the director of the Nobel Institute. Ana Corina Sosa, Machado’s wife, will be the one to receive the award in his honor: a medal and a diploma. Traditionally, after the Norwegian Nobel Committee has presented the reasons for awarding the prize at the ceremony, the winner or someone on their behalf gives a speech, traditionally known as the Nobel lecture.
“It is enough to live under the threat of the death of the regime,” the director of the Norwegian Institute said of the logistical difficulties to be able to count on Machado’s presence. “This threat also applies when you are outside the country, both from the regime and from its friends around the world,” Harpviken added. Machado’s team does not yet know the reasons why it cannot be present in the information on the whereabouts of the opposition leader. “It’s a shame, it’s always better when the Nobel Prize winner is present,” lamented the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, in statements to his country’s press.
Conservative politics has been in hiding since August 2024, just weeks after Venezuela’s presidential elections last year, when Nicolás Maduro declared himself the winner, despite accusations of fraud and a defeat that pitted the opposition and favored ex-diplomat Edmundo González by all margins. Machado, the most visible figure of dissent against the Chavista regime, was deposed in the opposition primaries with 93% of the preferences, but was disqualified by electoral authorities and was able to support González’s candidacy.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute announced the prize for Machado on October 10, at the height of tensions between the United States and Venezuela due to the military deployment ordered by Donald Trump in Caribbean waters. Since then, the possibility of the country’s opposition leader leaving the country has been called into question, along with its political implications.
Alongside the official handover ceremony, it is also planned that traveling Venezuelan scientists will be able to watch the act in a square adjacent to the Nobel Peace Center and a few meters from Oslo City Hall. Other activities planned this term include the traditional antorcha procession and a banquet led by senior officials from the Norwegian government, judiciary and monarchy.
Four Latin American presidents were invited by the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. José Raúl Mulino, from Panama, took the moon to the Norwegian capital. The controversial Javier Milei, from Argentina, and Santiago Peña, from Paraguay, have landed on Earth. The last one expected to finish this month is Daniel Noboa of Ecuador.
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