María Corina Machado: Nobel Peace Prize winners daughter accepts award on her behalf

A daughter of María Corina Machado, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has said her mother is determined to live in a free Venezuela and will “never give up” as she accepted her mother’s award in Oslo.

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

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

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

The opposition leader’s daughter started off her speech by speaking of 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.

Her daughter told the audience: “And as I wait [for] that moment to hug her, to kiss her, to embrace her, after two years, I think of the other daughters and sons who do not get to see their mothers.”

Ms Sosa then read the speech written by her mother, telling the audience that Venezuelans “will hug again, fall in love again, hear our streets fill with laughter and music”.

She added: “All the simple joys the world takes for granted will be ours.

“Because in the end, our journey towards freedom has always lived inside us. We are returning to ourselves. We are returning home.”

The audience in City Hall, which included members of Norway’s royal family, gave Ms Sosa a long round of applause and a standing ovation.

There had been much speculation about whether Machado, who has been living in hiding, would be able to defy a travel ban to attend the ceremony.

In an audio recording shared by the Nobel Institute, Machado said: “I will be in Oslo, I am on my way.”

However, the director of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, said she was expected to arrive “sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning” – too late for the ceremony.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute had said they were in the dark about Machado’s whereabouts, triggering concern among her supporters.

As well as her daughter Ana, Machado’s two other children, her mother and her three sisters are all in Oslo waiting to be reunited with her.

The last time she was seen in public was on 9 January when she spoke to her supporters at a rally protesting against the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro to a third term as president.

The elections were widely dismissed both by the opposition in Venezuela and on the international stage as rigged, and sparked protests across the country.

Around 2,000 people were arrested in the crackdown which followed, among them many members of Machado’s opposition coalition.

Machado, who had managed to unite the bitterly divided opposition ahead of the election, went into hiding for fear of arrest.

She continued to give interviews and uploaded videos to social media urging her followers not to give up.

Her Nobel Peace Prize win galvanised supporters and triggered immediate speculation as to whether she would be able to travel to Oslo.

Total secrecy has surrounded her travel plans and it is not known how she managed to leave her place of hiding or by what means she has reached Europe.

Speaking before she left Venezuela she told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK: “I want to assure every single Venezuelan that I will be back.”

On the streets of the capital Caracas, though, there were some who worried that it might not be easy for her to get back into Venezuela.

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

“The problem for her will be returning later,” María explained, adding that her own grandchildren were outside the country “precisely because of the problems we have”.

When the Nobel Committee awarded her the peace prize, it highlighted her “civilian courage”, noting that “despite serious threats against her life” she had remained in the country, a choice which the committee said “inspired millions”.

Carlos, 49, said he hoped Machado would return after visiting Norway.

“I think it’s better for her to be here, inside. Since everyone has left and hasn’t done anything. It’s best for her to be here inside Venezuela,” he said, criticising opposition leaders who have gone into exile.

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

The US has deployed warships to international waters off Venezuela and US President Donald Trump has been ramping up pressure on Maduro, reportedly giving him an ultimatum to leave Venezuela.

The US has also been carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean, accusing the alleged traffickers who are piloting them of trying to carry drugs from Venezuela to the US. Dozens of people have been killed in the controversial months-long campaign.

After Machado was told she had won the peace prize back in October, she spoke on the phone to Trump, who had made no secret of wanting to win the accolade himself.

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

Quizzed about the call by reporters, Trump said that “I’ve been helping her along the way” and described Machado as “very nice”.

Machado also appeared to back the US strikes on boats in the Caribbean – the legality of which has been questioned by experts on international law. She told the BBC that “when you cut the inflows that come from drug trafficking, gold smuggling, arms smuggling, human trafficking, or the black market of oil, then the regime falls”.