Machado in Oslo, but will not attend Nobel Peace ceremony to receive award

The build-up to the ceremony has been tinged with shadowy intrigue, after the Norwegian Nobel Institute earlier said Machado’s whereabouts were unknown.Published On 10 Dec 2025Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will not receive the Nobel Peace Prize in person at an award ceremony in Oslo, but she will be in the European city, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said.Machado, 58, was due to receive the award on Wednesday at Oslo City Hall in the presence of Norway’s monarchs and Latin American leaders, including fellow conservative politicians Argentinian President Javier Milei and Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Supporters of Venezuela’s Machado rally in cities around the worldlist 2 of 4How US pressure is squeezing Venezuela’s already fragile economylist 3 of 4Nobel Institute calls off Machado press conference ahead of award ceremonylist 4 of 4The Take: US-Venezuela military buildup tests Puerto Rico’s painful pastend of listThe opposition leader of the Vente Venezuela party was awarded the prize in October, with the Nobel Committee praising Machado’s role in the country’s opposition movement and her “steadfast” support for democracy.Machado, who holds many right-wing views, dedicated her prize in part to United States President Donald Trump, who has said that he himself deserved the honour and was infuriated that he did not receive it.“Although she will not be able to reach the ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that Machado is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo,” the institute stated.She is expected to reach Oslo “sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning”, the institute’s director Kristian Berg Harpviken told the AFP news agency on Wednesday, shortly before the 1pm (12:00 GMT) ceremony, at which her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, is set to accept the award in her place.“I will be in Oslo; I am on my way,” Machado stated in an audio recording released by the institute.The announcement was part of a sequence of events more befitting of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, as the institute had earlier stated Machado’s whereabouts were unknown. A planned news conference a day earlier was also cancelled due to her absence.