Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuela’s Maria Colina Machado
Maria Colina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize after giving a powerful speech while accepting the award in her daughter’s absence.
OSLO, Norway — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Colina Machado arrived in Oslo late at night on Thursday, December 11, after failing to arrive in the Norwegian capital in time to receive her award at a ceremony held a few hours earlier, the head of the Nobel Committee announced.
The 58-year-old engineer secretly left Venezuela for Oslo after spending more than a year in hiding, ignoring a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in his home country.
“I can confirm that Maria Corina Machado has arrived in Oslo,” Jorgen Watne Fridnes told people gathered in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay.
“She’s on her way here, but she’s going to go straight to see her family…see you tomorrow.”
Her daughter Ana Colina Sosa Machado received the Nobel Prize in her name, and her mother gave a speech saying that democracies must be ready to fight for freedom if they are to survive.
In his speech, Machado said the award has deep meaning not only for his country but also for the world.
“We remind the world that democracy is essential for peace,” she said through her daughter. Her daughter’s voice cracked when she talked about her mother. “And above all, what we Venezuelans can offer the world are the lessons forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have democracy, you must be willing to fight for freedom.”
Winners leave Venezuela by boat
Officials said Machado left Venezuela by boat on Tuesday, December 9, heading to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, where he took a private plane to Norway.
The source, briefed by Machado’s camp, said the flight from the Venezuelan coast was handled by security staff. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Machado’s trip to Curacao, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
A large portrait of Machado with her signature smile was hung at Oslo City Hall. When Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Fridnes said during his speech that Machado would be coming to Oslo, the audience cheered and applauded.
Recalling past laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, he said fighters for democracy were expected to “pursue their objectives with a moral purity that their opponents will never display.”
“This is unrealistic. It’s unfair,” he said.
“No democracy functions in ideal conditions. Activist leaders must confront and resolve dilemmas that we on the sidelines can ignore. People living under dictatorships often have to choose between the difficult and the impossible.”
“Selections that must be updated daily”
“Freedom is a choice that must be renewed every day, measured by our willingness and courage to defend it. For this reason, Venezuela’s cause transcends borders,” she said in a prepared speech.
“Those who choose freedom contribute not only to themselves but also to humanity.”
In 2024, Machado was barred from running for president despite winning the opposition party’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following voting disputes.
Election authorities and the Supreme Court declared Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro the winner, but international observers and opposition parties said their candidate won easily, and the opposition released ballot box-level tallies as evidence of victory.
“Fragile” democratic institutions
In his speech, Machado said Venezuelans did not immediately realize that their country was slipping into what he described as a dictatorship.
“By the time we realized how fragile our institutions had become, a man who had once led a military coup to overthrow democracy was elected president. Many thought that charisma could replace the rule of law,” Machado said, referring to the late President Hugo Chávez, who was elected in 1999 and held power until his death in 2013.
“Since 1999, the regime has dismantled our democracy.”
Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, said President Donald Trump was trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and that the Venezuelan people and military would resist such efforts.
dedicated to trump
When Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, he dedicated a portion of the award to Trump, who said he himself was worthy of the honor. Despite suspicions by U.S. intelligence agencies, she aligns with hawks close to President Trump who say Maduro has ties to criminal organizations that pose a direct threat to U.S. national security.
The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coast of Central and South America in recent months.
Human rights groups, some Democrats, and Latin American countries condemned the attack as an illegal and extrajudicial killing of civilians.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, Terje Solsvik, Miguel Pereira, Tom Little and Leonhard Foeger in Oslo, Matt Spetalnick in Washington, D.C., and Ilze Filks and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm; Editing by Alison Williams, Alex Richardson and Michael Perry)
