The Venezuelan opposition leader, , will be in Oslo, although she will not arrive at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to be held this Wednesday, the Nobel Institute has assured, without specifying when she is expected.
“The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado, has done everything in her power to attend today’s ceremony. (It is) a trip in a situation of extreme danger“said the Nobel Institute in a statement.
“Although you won’t be able to make it to today’s ceremony or events, we are deeply happy to confirm that you are safe and that he will be with us in Oslo,” he added, however.
Hours earlier, the director of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told the Norwegian public television channel NRK that the former deputy will not be in Oslo today to collect the prize.
“Unfortunately he is not yet in Norway and he will not be on stage at Oslo City Hall at 1:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT) today when the ceremony begins,” he declared, adding that It will be Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, who will collect the award in his place and read the award acceptance speech.
The presence of Machado, whose whereabouts are unknown in Venezuela, in Oslo was a mystery after the Nobel Institute first postponed its press conference the day before and finally suspended it.
Machado had confirmed a few days ago to the Nobel Institute that he would travel to the Norwegian capital to receive the prize, and, if he finally manages to arrive in Oslo as the organization assures he will, it would be his first public appearance since last January.
His mother, Corina Parisca, his sister and his daughter are in the Norwegian capital.
Precedents
It is not the first time that a Nobel Peace Prize winner has not come to pick it up on the day of the award.
When the Chinese Liu Xiaobo, then imprisoned, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, no one came to collect the prize: A photo of him was placed on the chair designated for him, and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read the acceptance speech.
In 2022, however, the Belarusian Ales Bialiatski, one of the three Nobel laureates that year and who remained in prison, was represented by his wife, Natallia Pinchuk.
And when the Iranian Narges Mohammadi, also imprisoned, did so in 2023, it was her children who traveled to Oslo to collect the award and read the speech.
Who else is in Oslo
Apart from Machado’s children, Several prominent figures of the Venezuelan opposition are in Oslo these days.
Among them is Edmundo González Urrutia, candidate in last year’s presidential elections and exiled in Spain since September 2024, who traveled to the Norwegian capital today.
Also already there, invited by the winner, are the presidents of Panama, José Raúl Mulino; Argentina, Javier Milei, and Paraguay, Santiago Peña, and the arrival of Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa is expected.
The four will be received today in audience by King Harald V after the handover ceremony, which begins at 1:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT), and will then meet separately with the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.
