Venezuelan Opposition Leader’s Daughter Accepts Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo

OSLO, NORWAY  (VINnews/AP) — The daughter of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado tearfully accepted the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on her mother’s behalf Wednesday, denouncing the “brutal dictatorship” of President Nicolás Maduro and vowing that “Venezuela will breathe again.”

Ana Corina Sosa Machado, 34, received the award at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall amid a standing ovation, as her mother — who has been in hiding for nearly a year — was unable to attend due to a perilous journey out of Venezuela. A large portrait of Machado hung onstage next to an empty seat, symbolizing her absence.

In an emotional speech delivered by her daughter, Machado condemned the regime’s “obscene corruption,” repression and mass displacement that has forced more than 9 million Venezuelans to flee since Maduro took power in 2013.413c9c “They’ve lied to us, imprisoned us and expelled us,” Sosa Machado quoted her mother as saying, her voice cracking. “The nine million exiles are open wounds.”

Machado, 56, was awarded the prize in October for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and her efforts to achieve a “just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised her as an “extraordinary example of civilian courage” in uniting a fractured opposition against Maduro’s authoritarian rule.

The laureate has been underground since shortly after the July 2024 presidential election, which her allies say she and her backed candidate, Edmundo González, won by a landslide. Maduro rejected the results, sparking a crackdown that included arrests of opposition figures and threats against Machado herself.

In a phone call aired earlier Wednesday, Machado told the Nobel committee she was en route to Oslo after a “journey of extreme danger” and vowed to arrive “in just a few hours” to embrace her family, whom she hasn’t seen in two years. “As soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children,” she said.

x.com

Moments after the speech, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, issued a stark rebuke to Maduro, earning another standing ovation. “Mr. Maduro, accept the election results and step down,” Frydnes said.

The ceremony featured a performance of “Mi Querencia (My Haven),” a Venezuelan folk song requested by Machado that evokes themes of exile and return home. Sosa Machado dedicated the prize to Venezuela’s political prisoners and human rights defenders, echoing her mother’s call for an “orderly transition” to democracy.

Machado, a former lawmaker and founder of the pro-democracy group Súmate, has faced expulsion from Congress, a political ban and repeated arrest threats for her activism spanning more than two decades.696077 Her award highlights global concerns over democracy’s retreat, with the committee noting parallels to authoritarian trends worldwide.

Norwegian intelligence reported serious threats to Machado’s life, contributing to the last-minute decision to skip the event.4edd17 A planned press conference was canceled Tuesday, with the Nobel Institute citing uncertainty over her whereabouts.

Maduro’s government has dismissed the prize, with the president previously calling Machado a fringe figure rejected by most Venezuelans. The opposition leader, in her speech, urged democracies to “fight for freedom in order to survive.”

As the ceremony concluded, Sosa Machado expressed hope for her mother’s imminent arrival. “Freedom is not something we wait for, but something we become,” her mother wrote in the prepared remarks.