A deafening silence fell over Oslo City Hall at one o'clock in the afternoon. The attendees rose from their seats. The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee took their places on the podium. And the trumpets began to sound in a solemn and triumphant tone, announcing that the moment had finally arrived. Amid enormous anticipation, María Corina Machado, the leading figure of the Venezuelan opposition and the most troublesome figure for the government of Nicolás Maduro, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday"for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a peaceful and just transition from dictatorship to democracy." Machado, the main protagonist of the gala, was also notably absent. The 58-year-old leader managed to leave Venezuela after being confined for 16 months in hiding, but she did not manage to be in Norway in time to receive in person the most important award of her political career.
María Corina Machado was not physically present at the ceremony, but her presence was omnipresent on the walls of Oslo City Hall. The Norwegian capital awoke to the news that the opposition leader would not be able to attend the ceremony and breathed a sigh of relief when the Nobel Institute confirmed that she was safe and en route to the Scandinavian country. “I will be in Oslo,” the 58-year-old leader said in a call released moments before the ceremony by the Norwegian institution, the latest chapter in a saga that has filled this year's awards with drama and whose final chapter is yet to be written.
“Venezuela will breathe again,” Machado declared in her acceptance speech, read by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado. The applause from the hundreds of attendees overflowed the Oslo City Hall banquet hall as Sosa stepped forward to receive the diploma and medal in her mother's honor. “This award has a profound meaning: it reminds the world that democracy is essential for peace,” the young woman said. Sosa Machado also spoke of her mother's arduous journey to be present for the award ceremony: “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.”
Machado stated that the Nobel Prize is a tribute to the suffering of the Venezuelan people and dedicated it to those who have endured repression under Chavismo. “To our political prisoners, to the persecuted, to their families, and to all those who defend human rights,” she said in her acceptance speech. The opposition leader also thanked her three children, her parents, her sisters, and her husband for their unwavering support throughout her career. “This honor belongs to them. This day belongs to them. The future belongs to them.”
In her speech, traditionally known as the Nobel lecture, the leader reviewed Venezuela's political history and the struggle she has waged against Chavismo. “I have come to tell you a story, the story of a people and their long march toward freedom. That march brings me here today, as one voice among millions of Venezuelans who have risen up once again to claim the destiny that has always belonged to them,” she emphasized in her written statement.
She also declared herself ready to seek regime change in Venezuela. “During these sixteen months in hiding, we have built new networks of civic pressure and disciplined disobedience, preparing ourselves for an orderly transition to democracy,” the opposition leader asserted. After finishing her speech, Sosa Machado placed both hands on her chest in a gesture of gratitude and bowed to a standing ovation from the audience.
The Nobel Prize represents the greatest symbolic victory for a Venezuelan opposition that has been battered, persecuted, and forced into exile. The recognition breathed new life into a diminished and practically dismantled dissident movement, which sees in Machado its only viable option to challenge Chavismo for power, and which received in Oslo a new impetus to think about the future. Four right-wing Latin American leaders also attended the ceremony to close ranks with the opposition cause: the ultraconservative Javier Milei of Argentina; Santiago Peña of Paraguay; Daniel Noboa of Ecuador; and José Raúl Mulino of Panama.
The Venezuelan political crisis was another major topic of discussion that afternoon. “Venezuela has become a brutal and authoritarian state mired in a profound humanitarian and economic crisis. Meanwhile, a small elite at the top, protected by power, weapons, and impunity, is enriching itself,” stated Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in a harsh speech that spared no criticism of Chavismo. “Behind Maduro are Cuba, Russia, Iran, China, and Hezbollah, which provide weapons, surveillance systems, and means of economic survival,” Frydnes asserted, in one of the most applauded speeches of the ceremony.
“In the midst of this darkness, there are Venezuelans who have refused to surrender,” continued the representative of this year’s Nobel Committee. “Those who keep the flame of democracy alive. Those who never give in, despite the enormous personal cost. They constantly remind us what is at stake,” Frydnes stated, while describing Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civic courage in recent Latin American history.” In a global context where democratic regimes are at a low ebb, the Norwegian committee insisted on redoubling its commitment to a democratic solution to the crisis in Venezuela. “Democracy is more than a form of government. It is also the foundation for lasting peace,” he concluded.
