Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday, through her daughter Ana Corina Sosa, who accepted the award on her behalf, to all the people of Venezuela and to the heroes who fight for freedom, as well as to the world leaders who stood with us and defended our cause.

Machado, who lives in an unknown location in Venezuela, will nevertheless be in the Norwegian capital, the Nobel Institute confirmed, which hours earlier had announced her absence from the ceremony, a day after her press conference was cancelled.

The Venezuelan opposition leader did everything in her power to come to the ceremony, a journey in an extremely dangerous situation, and although she will not be able to participate in today's events, we are deeply happy to confirm that she is safe and will be with us in Oslo, the institute said in a statement.

Sosa, after accepting the award, later confirmed that he would be able to hug her in Oslo in a few hours and that the opposition leader intends to return to Venezuela very soon.

I must say that my mother never breaks a promise. And so, with all the joy in my heart, I can tell you that in just a few hours we will be able to embrace her here in Oslo after 16 months, said Sosa, who occupied the chair designated for her mother alongside the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, with a photo of Machado as a backdrop.

Let me pay tribute to the heroes of this journey. To our political prisoners, to the persecuted, to their families, and to all those who defend human rights, the award recipient stated in her speech, also remembering the millions of anonymous Venezuelans who risked their homes, their families, and their lives.

Open wound

Machado's speech included a review of Venezuela's history, in which she asserted that it became the most stable democracy in Latin America, until it was dismantled from 1999 onwards by the regime, which she accused of falsifying history, corrupting the Armed Forces, manipulating elections and persecuting dissent.

Machado—who did not mention either the late President Hugo Chávez or his successor and current President Nicolás Maduro—spoke of a historic looting and how oil money was used to buy loyalties abroad, while the State merged with organized crime and international terrorist groups.

He also spoke of the open wound caused by the emigration of Venezuelans, and accused the government of breaking the opposition from within:"They wanted Venezuelans to distrust each other, to be silent, to see each other as enemies. They suffocated us, imprisoned us, killed us, and forced us into exile."

After trying everything for three decades, hope collapsed, said Machado, who described the decision to hold primary elections, unite the opposition, and tour the entire country in a pre-campaign, a year before the 2024 presidential elections, as a change of course.

The decision by the authorities not to allow her to run in the elections was a hard blow, the opposition leader admitted, although the movement continued with Edmundo González Urrutia, who was not seen as a threat by the regime.

Machado praised the work of thousands of volunteers during election day, using technology as a tool for freedom, which allowed the digitization and publication of the records, which he said gave González the victory with 67% of the votes.

The dictatorship responded with terror. Two thousand five hundred people were kidnapped, disappeared, or tortured. Their homes were marked, and entire families were taken hostage. Priests, teachers, nurses, students: all persecuted for sharing a voter registration card, Sosa declared on behalf of her mother, in a speech delivered in English.

An ordered transition

The nearly year and a half he has spent in hiding has served to build new networks of civic pressure and to prepare an orderly transition to democracy, said Machado, who spoke of how millions of Venezuelans already feel their freedom is near.

Venezuela will breathe again. We will open the prison doors and see the sun rise on thousands of innocent people who were unjustly imprisoned, finally embraced by those who never stopped fighting for them, he declared.

Before delivering his speech, Sosa received the certificate and Nobel medal that accompany the prize, endowed this year with 11 million Swedish kronor (1 million euros, 1.2 million dollars), from the head of the Nobel Peace Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

In his speech, Frydnes praised Machado's career, calling her a source of inspiration for millions of people for remaining in hiding in her country and for her defense of freedom, and urged Maduro to resign.

The ceremony was presided over by King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, in the presence of three Latin American presidents invited by Machado: José Raúl Mulino (Panama), Javier Milei (Argentina) and Santiago Peña (Paraguay).

Two Venezuelan artists participated: Danny Ocean, who performed Alma Llanera and Venezuela, and pianist Gabriela Montero, who played Mi Querencia. EFE