AFP News- Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute confirmed, amid uncertainty over her current location.
Machado had been scheduled to receive the award at today’s ceremony in Oslo City Hall, attended by King Harald, Queen Sonja, and several Latin American leaders, including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa. The event begins at 1pm (12pm Irish time).
Despite a decade-long travel ban imposed by Venezuelan authorities and more than a year spent in hiding, Machado was expected to defy restrictions to appear. However, “she is unfortunately not in Norway and will not stand onstage at Oslo City Hall when the ceremony starts,” Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the institute and permanent secretary of the award committee, told broadcaster NRK.
Asked about her whereabouts, Harpviken replied, “I don’t know.”The ceremony will proceed as planned, with her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, set to accept the prize and deliver the Nobel lecture on her behalf — a tradition followed when laureates are unable to attend.
Machado, who won the award in October, dedicated it in part to former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize himself.
President Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013, accuses Trump of attempting to topple his government to seize Venezuela’s extensive oil reserves, insisting that both citizens and the armed forces would resist any such move.
