Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, where she is being honoured for her fight to restore democracy in her country. Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, confirmed that Machado was not in Norway on the day of the event and that her daughter would receive the award on her behalf. Machado has been in hiding for nearly a year and has not appeared in public since January 9, when she was briefly detained during a protest in Caracas.
A press conference scheduled for Tuesday, at which Machado was expected to appear virtually or through intermediaries, was abruptly cancelled after hours of delay. Nonetheless, several Latin American leaders—including Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña—were set to attend the ceremony in a show of solidarity.
Machado, 58, was awarded the prize on October 10 for her role in “keeping the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.” She won the Venezuelan opposition’s primary election and had intended to contest the presidency against Nicolás Maduro, but the government barred her from running. Retired diplomat Edmundo González stepped in as the replacement candidate, only to seek asylum in Spain after a court issued a warrant for his arrest following the disputed July 28, 2024, election. That vote was marred by repression, arbitrary arrests and mass disqualifications, and ended with the National Electoral Council—dominated by Maduro loyalists—declaring him the winner.
The United Nations and multiple human rights organisations have warned of escalating crackdowns on dissent in Venezuela. Machado’s inability to attend the ceremony aligns her with past Nobel Peace Prize winners who were absent due to imprisonment or repression, including Narges Mohammadi, Ales Bialiatski, Liu Xiaobo, Aung San Suu Kyi and Carl von Ossietzky. Harpviken noted that it is customary for close family members to represent laureates who cannot safely travel, and Machado’s daughter will read the speech her mother has written.
