Oslo appearance by Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado delayed | Nobel peace prize
The Norwegian Nobel Institute said that the press conference to be held in Oslo with Nobel peace prize winner and hidden Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been postponed but should be held later in the day.
The press conference, traditionally held by the Nobel laureate on the eve of the award ceremony, is expected to be the 58-year-old’s first public appearance in 11 months. Machado last appeared in public on January 9, at a demonstration in Caracas protesting Nicolás Maduro’s appointment to the third term presidency.
“The press conference with Nobel peace laureate María Corina Machado, scheduled to be held today at 13:00 (CET) at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, will be postponed,” organizers said. “We will inform accredited media about the new time at least two hours in advance.”
They said they were working under the assumption that Machado “will be present at the press conference.”
Journalists accredited to attend the event received messages marked “urgent” from the committee’s media and communications officer an hour and a half before the scheduled access time.
A spokesman for the award told the Guardian: “We have no information about this at the moment.”
Machado’s family arrived in Norway’s capital for Wednesday’s ceremony.
Machado was announced as the winner of this year’s peace prize in October for his dogged fight to save Venezuela from its fate of becoming a “brutal, authoritarian state.”
The conservative, often described as Venezuela’s Iron Lady, dedicated the award “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his steadfast support of our cause” in a post on X.
The US president ordered a massive naval build-up off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and threatened land strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers, following more than three months of military action against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Machado’s mother, Corina Parisca de Machado, was seen arriving at Oslo airport on Monday. He hasn’t seen his 84-year-old daughter for a year.
“I pray the rosary every day, asking God the Father, the Virgin Mary, that together we can have María Corina tomorrow,” he told Agence France-Presse. “And if we don’t see it tomorrow, it’s because of God’s will.”
Machado’s two sons and daughter Ana Corina Sosa, who arrived at the Grand Hotel in Oslo on Monday night, are also expected to attend.
“I’m sure there will be tears, joy and hugs when we see each other,” Sosa said. said Norwegian broadcaster NRK earlier this month. “I miss holding him. I miss smelling him and seeing him in person. We’re going to make the most of the time we have with each other.”
Machado’s location has not been publicly disclosed, but some reports say he has reached Europe, and there are suggestions that he may have received help from the United States to be smuggled out of Venezuela via Puerto Rico.
Maduro refused to acknowledge his loss to Machado ally Edmundo González in the July 2024 presidential election and launched a political crackdown that drove González into exile and Machado underground.
Not since 2012, when the EU received the peace prize, have so many heads of state planned to attend the ceremony. Among those expected to attend are the presidents of Argentina, Panama, Ecuador and Paraguay.
Norwegian Nobel Institute shared a video At that moment, director Kristian Berg Harpviken woke Machado up by phone with the news that he had been awarded the peace prize. “My god!” he said. “I have no words… But I hope you understand this… I’m just one person, I definitely don’t deserve this.”
