image source, REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
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- Author, Leire Sales
- Author title, BBC News Mundo correspondent in Los Angeles
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After several days of announcing the impending arrival of María Corina Machado in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, it finally happened in the early hours of Wednesday to Thursday.
Although she was unable to attend the ceremony, after arriving in the Norwegian capital and meeting her family at around 2:20 a.m. local time, Machado went to the balcony of the Gran Hotel to greet a group of Venezuelans who were waiting for her and sang Gloria al Bravo Pueblo, Venezuela’s national anthem.
After a few minutes, accompanied by her daughter Ana Corina Sosa, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of her mother on Wednesday morning, and her mother Corina Parisca Machado, she took to the street and approached the community.
And the possibility of seeing Machado publicly and outside Venezuela raised great expectations, considering he has remained underground for the past year and a half.
image source, REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
image source, REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
After denouncing electoral fraud after Nicolás Maduro was declared winner of the July 2024 presidential election, Machado abandoned street events and took refuge on social networks to defend the opposition’s victory.
Together with the candidate Edmundo González, he presented 77% of the voting results confirming the victory of the opposition. So far, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council has not produced any ballot papers that would confirm the result in Maduro’s favor.
In November last year, Venezuelan prosecutors opened an investigation against Machado on charges of treason, foreign conspiracy and association to commit a crime, crimes that carry prison sentences of up to 30 years.
For this reason, Machado’s public appearance in Oslo is read as a challenge.
The opposition leader is also scheduled to appear at an official event in the Norwegian Parliament this Thursday, as well as a meeting and press conference with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
image source, NTB/Lise Aserud via REUTERS
image source, NTB/Lise Aserud via REUTERS
Looking forward to arrival
Early on Wednesday morning, the Norwegian Nobel Institute announced that this year’s laureate would not arrive in time for the award ceremony.
It was her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado who accepted the award on her behalf and read a few words from her mother.
But before reading the speech, Sosa not only noted the political value of the award for the Venezuelan opposition, but also explained what the possibility of reuniting with her mother meant to her personally.
“As I wait for this moment to hug and kiss her for two years, I think of other daughters and sons who cannot see their mothers today,” he said.
The United Nations estimates that 7.9 million Venezuelans have left the country in the last decade, the largest exodus in the Western Hemisphere’s modern history.
“That’s what motivates them,” Sosa said, referring to Machado’s political fight. And he ended the speech with assurances that his arrival in the Norwegian capital was imminent.
“My mother never breaks a promise,” he added.
About an hour after the event presided over by the Nordic country’s kings, the Norwegian Nobel Institute reported in a statement that the opponent had undertaken “a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”
“We are very pleased to confirm that he is safe and will be with us.”
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