Democracies must fight for freedom, Nobel laureate says

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said in a speech her daughter made during a ceremony that Machado could not attend, that democracies must be ready to fight for freedom in order to survive.

The Venezuelan opposition leader said that the award has deep meaning not only for his country but also for the world.

“This reminds the world that democracy is necessary for peace,” she said through her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, whose voice cracked when talking about her mother.

“And above all, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson learned in this long and difficult journey: To have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom.”

A large portrait of a smiling Machado was hung in Oslo City Hall to represent him.

“Freedom is not something we wait for, it is something we become. It is a deliberate, personal choice, and the sum of these choices constitutes civic morality that must be renewed every day.” Were Maria Corina Machado’s words spoken today in Oslo by her daughter Ana Corina Sosa? pic.twitter.com/xmEMDbWiqO? Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) December 10, 2025

The audience cheered and applauded when Joergen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in his speech that Machado would come to Oslo.

Evoking previous laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, he said democracy fighters were expected to “achieve their goals with a moral purity that their opponents never displayed.”

“This is unrealistic. This is not fair,” he said.

“No democracy operates under ideal conditions. Activist leaders must confront and resolve dilemmas that we, the audience, are free to ignore. People living under dictatorship often have to choose between the difficult and the “impossible.”

The 58-year-old engineer was to receive his award in the presence of King Harald at Oslo City Hall, despite a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in his home country and after more than a year in hiding.

However, he could not reach the “Norwegian capital” in time for the ceremony.

“I’ll be in Oslo, I’m on my way to Oslo right now,” Machado told Nobel Committee leader Joergen Watne Frydnes in an audio recording released by the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

It was not clear where he was calling from.

“We don’t know exactly when it will land, but we know it will land during the night,” institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken told Reuters.

“Freedom is conquered every day as long as we are ready to fight for it. That is why the Venezuelan cause goes beyond our borders,” he said in the text of his prepared speech.

“A people that chooses to be free not only liberates itself, but also contributes to all humanity.”

In 2024, Machado was barred from running in presidential elections despite winning the opposition primary by a landslide.

He went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the controversial vote.

The electoral authority and the supreme court declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner, but international observers and the opposition say the candidate won easily and the opposition has released poll-level minutes as evidence of its victory.

“When I arrive, I will be able to embrace my entire family, my children whom I have not seen for two years, and the many Venezuelan-Norwegians whom I know share our struggle.” Did you listen to the private phone call of 2025 peace prize winner Maria Corina Machado? pic.twitter.com/oOwsklo35k? Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) December 10, 2025

In his speech, Machado said that Venezuelans did not realize in time that their country was drifting, in his words, towards dictatorship.

“By the time we realized how fragile our institutions had become, it was too late,” Machado said.

Referring to the late president Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1999 and remained in power until his death in 2013, Chavez said: “When the ringleader of the military coup against democracy was elected president, many people thought that charisma could replace the rule of law.”

“The regime has devoted itself to dismantling our democracy since 1999.”