Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado displays vote tally sheets during a protest against the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, August 28, 2024. ARIANA CUBILLOS / AP
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in public for the first time in 11 months early Thursday morning local time, when she waved to supporters at a hotel in Norway’s capital hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
Machado had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. She had been expected to attend the award ceremony on Wednesday in Oslo, where heads of state and her family were among those waiting to see her.
Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that she wouldn’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.
Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in her place.
“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” Sosa said. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told the award ceremony that “María Corina Machado has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”
“Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo,” he said to applause.
In a Zoom interview with CBS News just hours after being awarded the honor in October, the woman known as Venezuela’s “Iron Lady” said it served as a message to Venezuelans that they were “not alone.”
“The world recognizes this huge, epic fight,” Machado said.
Venezuela’s attorney general told Agence France-Presse last month that Machado would be considered a “fugitive” if she left Venezuela to accept the honor.
Machado was awarded the Nobel for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
CBS