Maria Corina Machado He will not be present this Wednesday to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Her daughter will do so in her place, according to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which also claimed not to know anything about the whereabouts of the Venezuelan opposition leader.
“It will be your daughter Ana Corina Machado who accepts the prize on behalf of his mother,” Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Nobel Institute, told public broadcaster NRK.
The ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Oslo (9:00 a.m. in Argentina), in the municipality of the Norwegian capital. In addition to the awarding of the medal and diploma Ana Corina will also “read the speech written by María Corina herself”Harpviken said.
Since the award was given in October, there has been continued uncertainty about whether Machado would be able to travel to Norway. The opposition leader He has been living in secret since August 2024 and has not appeared in public for eleven monthswhen he led a protest against Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.
Over the weekend, the Nobel Institute announced that the Venezuelan would accept the prize – which includes a gold medal, a diploma and $1.2 million – in person, and organized a press conference and several international interviews. Everything was canceled at the last minute.
Dozens of exiled Venezuelans also traveled to Oslo Javier Milei and other presidents, including those of Paraguay, Ecuador and Panama
“I just don’t know exactly where it is.”Harpviken confirmed. On Tuesday evening he continued to assert that he had confidence in his arrival.
His former campaign manager Magalli Meda indicated that same day that Machado had left Venezuela and would return.
“How can we believe that María Corina will not return and remain in exile,” he wrote in X.
Machado’s absence is not unprecedented. The Iranian Narges Mohammadi (2023), the Chinese Liu Xiaobo (2010) and the Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) were also unable to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in their respective years.
In October, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Machado – a trained engineer – for her efforts to ensure a “just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela.
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The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to María Corina Machado
After the elections that gave Maduro a third term in office, the opposition was forced to go underground. The results were not recognized by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries.
Machado claims that Maduro stole the election from his candidate Edmundo González Urrutiaand published copies of the votes collected by the machines to support his complaints. Chavismo rejects the allegations.
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