Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition, was unable to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. However, she will arrive in Oslo in the coming hours, according to the Norwegian Nobel Institute and her daughter, who accepted the award and delivered the acceptance speech on her behalf. After a period of uncertainty, during which Nobel Institute officials reported the laureate's absence and unknown whereabouts, it has been confirmed that she is safe and on her way to the Norwegian capital. "Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado has done everything possible to attend today's ceremony. A journey under extremely dangerous circumstances. Although she will not be able to attend the ceremony or today's events, we are deeply pleased to confirm that she is safe and will be with us in Oslo," the institute said in a statement. Machado was scheduled to attend the ceremony at Oslo City Hall, which was presided over by King Harald and Queen Sonja, and Latin American leaders including the presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei, and Ecuador, Daniel Ortega. Noboa.

During the previous week, there was speculation surrounding the laureate's presence, and early Wednesday, it was reported that she would not be at the ceremony and that her whereabouts were unknown.

Although Machado did not arrive at the event, the ceremony went ahead, and her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award and delivered a speech on her mother's behalf.

In October, the Nobel Prize Committee decided to award the prize to the opposition leader for her "tireless efforts to promote rights and freedoms in Venezuela" and for supporting "a just and peaceful transition to democracy."

"Maria Corina Machado has dedicated years to working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people," the institution emphasized, adding that "the Venezuelan government's iron grip on power and its repression of the population are not unique phenomena in the world."

“My God… I have no words,” was the opposition leader's first reaction upon learning last October that she had become the first Venezuelan to receive the prize.

“This is the achievement of a movement, of a society. "I certainly don't deserve such an award, but I receive it with humility and gratitude on behalf of the people of Venezuela," she added during a telephone conversation with Kristian Berg Harpviken, president of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee. demonstration in Caracas against Nicolas Maduro's swearing-in for a third consecutive term.

At the end of 2024, Machado announced that she would go underground, amid the wave of repression with which Venezuelan authorities responded to the protests unleashed in the country after the disputed results of the presidential elections, which left more than 2,000 detained, including dozens of opposition leaders.

The leader has become the main voice of dissent against the government of Maduro, who assumed power in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chavez.

In October 2023, she was chosen as the opposition's unified candidate in primary elections, but the authorities prevented her from running.

participate in the presidential elections held on July 28, 2024.

However, Machado did not remain idle and supported diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who, according to the records collected by the opposition, won the elections with 66% of the votes, although the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner without showing any evidence to support that decision.

Machado's figure became familiar to Venezuelans since 2003 onwards, when, from the organization Sumate, she promoted the process of activating a referendum that sought to revoke the mandate of then-President Chavez.

In 2010, she was elected deputy and in 2012 she had a tense exchange with the late president, whose policy of nationalizing companies she questioned.

“Expropriating is stealing,” she retorted, while Chavez told her country, he would consider her a “fugitive” and would seek to arrest her if she tried to return. Since 2014, Machado has been under a travel ban imposed by a Venezuelan court in response to her alleged involvement in the violent events that erupted during a march held in Caracas on February 12, 2014.Former mayor and presidential candidate Leopoldo Lopez was imprisoned in connection with this case. Despite the fact that more than a decade has passed since those events, and Machado was never criminally prosecuted, the court order remains in place. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who has spent the last few days announcing Machado's departure, was less harsh. "We're going to miss her," he said on his state television program. "The team has been in Norway for days now. And although the media is spreading the story that nobody knows where she is, the reality is less poetic. The woman has left the country." (He left) with the same elegance with which Edmundo Gonzalez managed his express departure from the country. No disappearance or drama, just textbook logistics and plans traveling silently with diplomatic immunity,” he declared.

*With breaking news information from Reuters