Nobel Peace Prize winner’s daughter accepts award on her behalf

The daughter of María Corina Machado, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has accepted the award on her mother’s behalf and delivered a lecture written by her.

The Venezuelan opposition leader was “safe” and will travel to Oslo, the Nobel Institute said, but was unable to make the awards ceremony scheduled for 12:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, told the audience at Oslo’s City Hall that her mother was determined to live in a free Venezuela and would “never give up on that purpose”.

The Nobel Institute awarded Machado the prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in her home country.

There had been much speculation about whether Machado, who has been living in hiding, would be able to defy a travel ban to attend the ceremony in Norway’s capital.

In an audio recording shared by the Nobel Institute, Machado said “I will be in Oslo, I am on my way.”

However, the director of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, said that Machado was expected to arrive “sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning” – too late for the ceremony.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute had said they were in the dark about Machado’s whereabouts, triggering concern among her supporters.

Two of her children and her mother are in Oslo, hoping to be reunited with Machado after being separated for more than a year.

Machado went into hiding shortly after Venezuela’s disputed presidential election in July 2024.

The last time she was seen in public was on 9 January when she spoke to her supporters at a rally protesting against the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro to a third term as president.

The elections were widely dismissed both by the opposition in Venezuela and on the international stage as rigged, and sparked protests across the country.

Around 2,000 people were arrested in the crackdown which followed, among them many members of Machado’s opposition coalition.

Machado, who had managed to unite the bitterly divided opposition ahead of the election, went into hiding for fear of arrest.

She continued to give interviews and uploaded videos onto social media urging her followers not to give up.

The announcement that she had been chosen as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner galvanised her supporters and triggered immediate speculation as to whether she would be able to travel to Oslo.

Total secrecy has surrounded her travel plans and it is not know how she managed to leave her place of hiding or by what means she has reached Europe.