OSLO — Nobel officials canceled a planned press conference with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado amid uncertainty over the Venezuelan opposition leader’s whereabouts and whether she will collect the award in person at Wednesday’s ceremony.
The event, scheduled for 1 p.m. local time, was first postponed and then called off after organizers said they could not confirm Machado’s attendance. “Maria Corina Machado herself said how difficult it was to come to Norway. We hope she will attend the Nobel Prize award ceremony,” Nobel Institute spokesman Erik Aasheim said.
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Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 10 for her efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela and challenge President Nicolás Maduro’s rule, in place since 2013. She went into hiding in August 2024 and last appeared in public on Jan. 9 at a protest in Caracas against Maduro’s inauguration for a third term.
She has accused Maduro of stealing the July 2024 election from which she was barred — a claim backed by much of the international community. Venezuelan authorities have warned that traveling to Oslo could expose her to further prosecution at home. Attorney General Tarek William Saab said last month that Machado would be considered a “fugitive” if she left Venezuela to accept the prize and noted she faces accusations including “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, [and] terrorism.” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Monday he did not know if she would travel.
Whether Machado appears in Oslo underscores broader stakes for Venezuela’s opposition, including the question of her potential return and the feasibility of leading a movement from exile. “Under any scenario — whether Machado can or can’t return to Venezuela — it will be very difficult to sustain momentum for the movement she inspired absent any progress in moving towards political change,” said Michael Shifter, an associate professor at Georgetown University. “To be sure, it will be hard for Machado to lead the opposition in exile. But it will not be easy for her to do so even based in the country [when] most Venezuelans are facing dire economic and humanitarian conditions and increased repression by the Maduro regime,” he said.
The Nobel ceremony is set for Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Oslo’s City Hall. Several members of Machado’s family — including her mother, three sisters and three children — are already in the Norwegian capital, though none have disclosed her location. A heavy police presence has been positioned outside the Grand Hotel in central Oslo, the traditional host of Peace Prize laureates.
Regional leaders are also streaming into Oslo. Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a political ally of Machado and of U.S. President Donald Trump, was expected to attend. Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino said he came to “congratulate the hero of democracy and the struggling Venezuelan people” and voiced hope for a “return to democracy in Venezuela as soon as possible.”
Machado’s prominence has drawn both applause and criticism. While many hail her as a symbol of resistance to authoritarianism, others have faulted her alignment with Trump, to whom she dedicated the Nobel Prize.
The ceremony unfolds against a tense geopolitical backdrop. The United States has staged a significant military buildup in the Caribbean in recent weeks, including deadly strikes on what Washington describes as drug-smuggling boats. Maduro asserts the real aim is to topple his government and seize Venezuela’s oil reserves — a claim Machado has dismissed, saying the operations are justified.
Uncertainty over Machado’s travel plans has turned a typically celebratory prelude into a high-stakes wait, with questions lingering over whether the 2024 laureate will step onto the Oslo stage — and what that decision will mean for Venezuela’s fractured and fearful opposition.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
