The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in a surprise Wednesday morning announcement, revealed that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is on her way to Oslo, Norway, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Initial Wednesday morning reports indicated that Machado, the 2025 Peace Prize Laureate, would not be able to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in person at Wednesday’s ceremony.
Norwegian Nobel Institute director Kristian Berg told Norway’s NRK on Wednesday morning that Machado was not in the European country, and at the time her whereabouts remained publicly unknown.
Machado has spent the past year in hiding under threats of arrest by the Venezuelan socialist Maduro regime. At press time, Machado was last publicly seen on January 9, 2025, at a peaceful opposition rally in Caracas.
Hours after their initial statement, the Nobel Committee released a phone call recording between Machado and Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee which, the Committee explained, took place “just before” she was on her way to board a flight to Oslo. Machado said that, unfortunately, she would not arrive in time for the award ceremony.
“As soon as I arrive I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I have not seen for two years and so many Venezuelan-Norwegians that I know share our struggle,” Machado said.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony took place in Oslo at 1:00 p.m. (local time). Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, received the award on behalf of her mother, and delivered Machado’s speech.
Sosa Machado, reciting her mother’s speech, gave a brief account of the collapse of Venezuela under the socialist Maduro regime, the regime’s brutal repression of dissidents, and the events and actions undertaken by Machado ahead of the sham July 28, 2024 election, explaining the logistical work that ultimately allowed the Venezuelan opposition to collect physical evidence of dictator Nicolás Maduro’s fraudulent “victory.”
Machado also explained how the Maduro regime banned her from running in the election, allowing only elderly former diplomat Edmundo González, who ultimately defeated Maduro in a landslide.
“But votes were not enough; we had to defend them. For over a year, we had been building the infrastructure to do so. 600,000 volunteers across 30,000 polling stations; apps to scan QR codes, digital platforms, diaspora call centers,” Machado Sosa, speaking on behalf of her mother, said. “We deployed scanners, Starlink antennas, and laptops hidden inside fruit trucks to the furthest corners of Venezuela. Technology became a tool for freedom.”
“Secret training sessions were held at dawn in church backrooms, kitchens, and basements, using printed materials moved across Venezuela like contraband,” she continued.
Machado’s travel to Norway and participation in the Nobel Peace Prize proceedings was the subject of weeks’ worth of speculation after she initially expressed her intention to travel — particularly in light of the both the Maduro regime’s constant threats of arrest and her still-active travel ban, initially imposed by the ruling socialists in 2014.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab reiterated in November that the Maduro regime has an active arrest warrant against Machado on dubious “treason” charges and threatened to have her declared a “fugitive” of the law should she dare to fly out of Venezuela. Machado has remained in hiding at an undisclosed location in Venezuela since the aftermath of the fraudulent 2024 election.
At press time, Argentine President Javier Milei, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña are presently in Oslo to accompany Machado in the Peace Prize proceedings.
“Today, we honor you, María Corina Machado. We pay tribute as well to all who wait in the dark. All who have been arrested and tortured, or have disappeared. All who continue to hope,” Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said during his speech.
“All those in Caracas and other cities of Venezuela who are forced to whisper the language of freedom. May they hear us now. May they realize that the world is not turning away. That freedom is drawing closer. And that Venezuela will become peaceful and democratic. Let a new age dawn,” he concluded.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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