This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, was a no-show on Wednesday at the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
But the Nobel organizers knew Machado would not make it there in time because they spoke with her by phone just before she boarded a plane for Norway and she promised to tell them privately "what we had to go through" to get there.
"So many people risked their lives in order for me to be in Oslo," Machado said in a phone call to the Nobel Prize organizers posted on X. "And this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people."
Machado did not explain why she was delayed but said she was very sad to miss the ceremony and was looking forward to reuniting with her family for the first time in two years.
"This is a prize for all Venezuelans," she said.
Machado's daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award of her mother's behalf to a standing ovation and said they would finally be able to embrace after “16 months of living hell.”
Then, while a giant portrait of Machado hung next to an empty seat on the stage in Oslo City Hall, she read a speech her mother had prepared, which said the award “reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace."
“Freedom is not something we wait for, but something we become,” Machado wrote. “It is a deliberate, personal choice, and the sum of those choices forms the civic ethos that must be renewed every day."
The ceremony was attended by members of Norway’s royal family, as well as Latin American leaders like Argentine President Javier Milei and Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa.
Earlier, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said in a statement that Machado had “done everything in her power to come to the ceremony” and that her journey had been one “of extreme danger.”
While the institute was “profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo,” it said Machado would be unable to receive the award in person.
Machado, 58, is barred from leaving Venezuela and has spent more than a year in hiding since the authoritarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro declared him the winner in an election last year that was widely criticized as rigged. She had been the opposition’s original candidate against Maduro, but the government prevented her from running.
Machado has been under a decadelong travel ban, and Venezuelan authorities have warned that she will be considered a fugitive if she attempts to travel abroad. She was last seen in public on Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after she appeared with supporters at a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, the day before Maduro was sworn in for his third six-year term.
In her Nobel Prize-winning acceptance speech, Machado recounted the wave of support she received during the 2024 election and how “the dictatorship responded with terror.”
“And yet, the Venezuelan people did not surrender,” she wrote. “This prize carries profound meaning. It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which hands out the annual prize, recognized Machado in October for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness” and for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.”
Machado said at the time that the honor was the “achievement of a whole society.”
But the committee’s decision has come under criticism amid Machado’s support for President Donald Trump’s military buildup in the Caribbean and for using force to remove Maduro.
Trump said Tuesday that Maduro’s “days are numbered,” although he declined to comment on whether the U.S. might send troops into the oil-rich South American nation.
After being awarded the prize in October, Machado dedicated it in part to Trump, who along with his supporters has openly campaigned for his own Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado has been unwavering in her support for U.S. military actions against the Venezuelan regime, which have included strikes of questionable legality on alleged drug trafficking boats in the nearby Caribbean Sea.
Almost 90 people, according to the Pentagon, have been killed in 22 strikes in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast. The administration has produced no evidence to support its allegations that the boats or the people on board were drug traffickers.
Machado has also supported forceful means to dislodge Maduro, saying the country’s elections are a sham. “You cannot have peace without freedom, and you cannot have freedom without strength,” she told NPR a day after winning the prize on Oct. 10.
Despite holding the world’s largest oil reserves, the collapse of Venezuela’s economy under Maduro has led to pervasive poverty and a mass exodus of Venezuelans that has become the largest displacement crisis in the world.
The Norwegian Peace Council, a group of 17 organizations promoting conflict resolution that is separate from the Nobel Committee, said in October that Machado does not “align with the core values” of the council, adding it was not going to hold its annual tradition of honoring the new laureate with a torchlight procession on Wednesday.
Nicknamed “the Lady of Steel” and “the Iron Lady,” Machado, an engineer and mother of three, revitalized Venezuela’s opposition, standing up against Maduro’s rule and his government’s crackdown against opposition figures, journalists and civil society at large.
Machado was barred from running for president against Maduro in July 2024, backing another opposition candidate, Edmundo González, instead. While González was recognized as the winner internationally, Maduro claimed victory, resulting in deadly mass protests.
González later sought asylum after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest, while Machado went into hiding for fear of retaliation from the Maduro regime.
“Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people,” the Nobel Committee said in its announcement.
