Maria Corina Machado.Image: keystone
Dec 10, 2025, 11:57 amDec 10, 2025, 12:14 p.m
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado from Venezuela is expected in Norway despite threats from her country’s authoritarian leadership. Although she will not make it to the actual award ceremony, she will come to Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Institute announced, without giving an exact time of her arrival. In doing so, the 58-year-old risks serious consequences that could await her when she returns to her home country.
“Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado did everything in her power to come to today’s ceremony,” the institute said shortly before the award ceremony, which began at 1 p.m. It is a journey that is associated with extreme dangers given their situation. “Although she will not be able to make it to the ceremony and today’s events, we are extremely pleased to confirm that she is safe and will be with us in Oslo.”
Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken announced on Norwegian Radio that morning that Machado would not take part in the award ceremony in Oslo City Hall. Instead, her daughter will receive the Nobel Prize and also give a speech that her mother wrote. He doesn’t know where Machado is.
Commitment to democracy in Venezuela
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in October that Machado, who lives in a secret location inside Venezuela, would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The committee awarded her the prestigious prize “for her tireless commitment to the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her fight for a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Machado is considered a unifying force in the opposition in Venezuela and a determined opponent of President Nicolás Maduro, who has been in power since 2013. She tried to run for president in her country in 2023, but was excluded from the election the following year because of alleged irregularities. Critics accuse Maduro of systematic election manipulation.
High personal risk
Machado went into hiding within her country some time ago out of concern for her safety. The Nobel Committee had previously assumed that she could come to Oslo for the prize ceremony. She herself had assured that she would do everything she could to be able to travel to the Norwegian capital for the greatest honor of her life.
However, Venezuelan prosecutors had threatened to consider Machado a fugitive if she left the country due to various investigations against her. She would potentially face arrest, an entry ban, or worse if she returned to Venezuela from Oslo.
“I have been accused of every crime imaginable, including terrorism,” Machado said recently in a video interview with Norwegian radio station NRK. “The regime has become very clear. Maduro said that if they caught me they would kill me.”
Prevented Nobel Prize winners absolute exception
With the Nobel Prizes, which have been awarded since 1901, it is rare that winners are unable to receive their awards in person. The exceptions included five Nobel Peace Prize winners who were imprisoned in their home countries at the time of their award. The Soviet nuclear physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov was also forbidden by the government to travel to Oslo in 1975 – his wife accepted the prize on his behalf.
The Nobel Peace Prize is traditionally presented ceremonially on December 10th in Oslo City Hall. On the same day, the anniversary of the death of dynamite inventor and prize founder Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), all other Nobel Prizes in the other categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics will be presented in Stockholm. This year, the prizes are worth eleven million Swedish crowns (around one million euros) per category. (sda/dpa)
More about Maria Corina Machado: