CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was absent Wednesday from the ceremony in Norway in which she was to receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize award, but confirmation that she was traveling to Europe elicited mixed feelings in her country, where many backed her precisely because she had not left her homeland.
Machado’s daughter accepted the award on her behalf in a ceremony that became a rally for democracy, and equally, an indictment of Venezuela’s government, with attendees hearing in detail documented human rights abuses carried out against real or perceived opponents of President Nicolás Maduro.
“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” Ana Corina Sosa told the audience in Oslo before reading her mother’s prepared remarks. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”
Neither Machado nor her staff explained when and how she left Venezuela for Oslo, Norway, or what obstacles kept her from appearing at the ceremony.
In an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website ahead of the event, Machado said she wouldn’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but should be in Oslo. She added that she was “very grateful” to the many people had “risked their lives” for her to travel to Norway’s capital.
Machado has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in an anti-government protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The following day, Maduro was sworn in to a third six-year term despite credible evidence that he lost the presidential election.
Machado intended to challenge Maduro in last year’s contest, but the government barred her from running for office, forcing her to endorse retired diplomat Edmundo González to her place. Before and after the election, many voters said they backed Machado — and by extension González — because she had not gone into exile while the country came undone.
On Wednesday, some Venezuelans understood her decision to depart while others questioned why she was awarded the Nobel.
“They say she left the country, if that’s true, good for her,” office worker Josefina Páez said in Caracas. “That woman has made many sacrifices to fight for democracy, and it’s time she reunites with her family, with her children, and continues fighting from abroad.”
Meanwhile, shopkeeper José Hurtado called Machado a “traitor” for her support of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy toward Venezuela.
“Those awards are very discredited,” he said.
The ceremony took place as Trump continues a military operation in the Caribbean that has killed Venezuelans in international waters and threatens to strike Venezuela.
González, who attended the ceremony in Oslo, sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest. His son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, is among the hundreds of people who are in prison for what human rights organizations have determined to be political reasons.
Independent experts backed by the United Nations, Venezuelan nongovernmental organizations and other groups have documented extensively brutal government repression throughout Maduro’s presidency. Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told attendees about repeated instances of torture, including the experiences of children who were detained in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
“The United Nations documented their experience as follows: Plastic bags pulled tight over their heads, electric shocks to the genitals, blows to the body so brutal it hurt the great, sexualized violence, cells so cold as to cause intense shivering, foul drinking water teeming with insects, screams that no one came to stop,” he said.
Watne Frydnes then called on Maduro to “accept the election result and step down.”
It is unclear when and how Machado and González could return to Venezuela. An opposition plan to get González back ahead of the Jan. 10 ceremony that gave Maduro another term did not materialize.
“People are anxiously awaiting news about what will happen, about how Maria Corina receiving or not receiving the award will affect things,” Caracas teacher José Murillo said.
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Associated Press writer Jorge Rueda and video journalist Juan Pablo Arraez contributed to this report.