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

The daughter of Maria Corinna Machado, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said her mother was determined to live in a free Venezuela and would never give up as she accepted her mother’s award in Oslo.

Just before the ceremony, the Venezuelan opposition leader, who was in hiding, sent a voice message saying that she was “safe” and on her way to the Norwegian capital, but would not make it to the ceremony at City Hall in time.

Ana Corina Sosa accepted the award on her behalf and gave a lecture written by her mother.

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

The Opposition Leader’s daughter began speaking about the personal impact of not being able to see her mother for two years.

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

“And I’m waiting,” Ms. Sosa told the crowd [for] “At that moment when I hug her, kiss her, hold her, two years later, I think of the other daughters and sons who couldn’t see their mothers.”

She then read the speech, telling the crowd that Venezuelans “will embrace again, fall in love again, and hear our streets fill with laughter and music.”

Ms. Sosa added: “All the simple joys that the world takes for granted will be ours.

“Because in the end, our journey toward freedom has always lived within us. We are coming back to ourselves. We are coming back home.”

The audience at City Hall, which included members of Norway’s royal family, greeted Ms. Sousa with a long round of applause and a standing ovation.

There has been much speculation about whether Machado will be able to defy the travel ban to attend the ceremony. “I will be in Oslo, I am on my way,” she said in an audio recording shared by the Nobel Institute.

However, the institute’s director, Christian Berg Harpviken, said Machado was expected to arrive “sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning” — too late for a celebration.

Earlier on Wednesday, the institute said they knew nothing about her whereabouts, raising concern among supporters.

In addition to her daughter Ana, Machado’s two other children, her mother and three sisters are in Oslo waiting to be reunited with her.

She was last seen in public on January 9, when she spoke to supporters at a rally protesting Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term as president.

The opposition in Venezuela and internationally have widely dismissed the elections as fraudulent, and sparked protests across the country.

About 2,000 people were arrested in the ensuing crackdown, including several members of her opposition coalition.

Machado, who managed to unite the deeply divided opposition before the elections, went into hiding for fear of arrest.

She continued giving interviews and uploading videos on social media urging her followers not to give up.

The Nobel Peace Prize won enthusiastic supporters and sparked immediate speculation about whether she would be able to travel to Oslo.

Her travel plans were completely kept secret, and it is not known how she was able to leave her hiding place or by what means she reached Europe.

Speaking before leaving Venezuela, Machado told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK: “I want to assure every Venezuelan that I will return.”

But on the streets of the capital, Caracas, there were those who were concerned that it might not be easy for her to return to Venezuela.

Maria, 66, told the BBC that she feared that without Machado, her supporters would be “left defenseless.”

“The problem for her will come back later,” Maria explained, adding that her grandchildren were out of the country “precisely because of the problems we are facing.”

When the Nobel Committee awarded her the Peace Prize, it highlighted her “civic courage,” noting that “despite serious threats to her life” she remained in the country, a choice the committee said “inspired millions.”

Carlos (49 years old) said he hopes Machado will return after visiting Norway.

“I think it is better for her to be here inside. Since everyone left and did not do anything. It is better for her to be here inside Venezuela,” he said, criticizing the opposition leaders who went into exile.

Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize comes at a time of intense tension between Maduro and the United States.

The United States deployed warships in international waters off Venezuela, and Donald Trump intensified pressure on Maduro, and was said to have given him an ultimatum to leave Venezuela.

The United States is also carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean, accusing the alleged traffickers who operate them of trying to transport drugs from Venezuela to the United States. Dozens were killed in the controversial campaign that lasted months.

After Machado was told she had won the Peace Prize in October, she spoke by phone with Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to win the award himself.

Machado told the BBC that in the call she stressed “how grateful the Venezuelan people are for what they are doing, not only in the Americas, but around the world for peace, freedom and democracy.”

Asked by reporters about the call, Trump said, “I was helping her along the way,” and described Machado as “very nice.”

Machado also appears to support US strikes on boats in the Caribbean, the legality of which has been questioned by international law experts. “When you cut off the flows that come from drug trafficking, gold smuggling, arms smuggling, human trafficking or the black market for oil, the regime falls,” she told the BBC.