Arya News - The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado of Venezuela, is expected to travel to Oslo despite threats from her country`s authoritarian leadership, but will not attend the award ceremony, the Nobel Institute announced on Wednesday. No details were given on the expected timing of her arrival.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado of Venezuela, is expected to travel to Oslo despite threats from her country"s authoritarian leadership, but will not attend the award ceremony, the Nobel Institute announced on Wednesday.
No details were given on the expected timing of her arrival. By making the trip, the 58-year-old risks serious repercussions upon returning to her home country.
The institute said that she "has done everything in her power to come to the ceremony today. A journey in a situation of extreme danger. Although she will not be able to reach the ceremony and today"s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo."
Earlier, the institute confirmed that the Venezuelan opposition leader would not attend the award ceremony, but that Machado"s daughter would accept the prize on her behalf and give a speech written by her mother.
A staunch opponent of Venezuela"s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, Machado was awarded this year"s Nobel Peace Prize in October for her commitment to the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people, to whom she dedicated her award.
Traditionally, the prize is presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards.
There had been uncertainty for weeks about Machado"s participation in the ceremony on Wednesday due to her situation in Venezuela, where she lives in hiding.
"I have been accused of every conceivable crime, including terrorism," Machado said in an interview with NRK last week. "The regime has made itself very clear. Maduro has said that they will kill me if they catch me."
The Venezuelan public prosecutor"s office recently threatened to consider Machado a fugitive if she left the country due to various investigations against her.
She could face arrest, or an entry ban if she returned to Venezuela from Oslo.
Machado dedicated the award to the "the suffering people of Venezuela" and to US President Donald Trump for his support of the Venezuelan opposition.
Following the announcement of the award, Maduro referred to her as a "demonic witch."
Machado had hoped to challenge Maduro"s presidency, but was excluded from the election in 2024 due to alleged irregularities.
It is extremely rare for winners of the Nobel Prize not to accept their awards in person. Since the prize was first awarded in 1901, only five winners have been denied this honour due to imprisonment in their home countries.
Among them were German journalist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo in 2010, and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023.
Vietnamese politician Lê Đức Thọ is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to date who has refused the prize. He was honoured in 1973 alongside former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger for negotiating an armistice in Vietnam, but said he would not accept the award as peace had not been truly established in the country.
This year"s ceremony in Oslo is scheduled to take place at 1 pm (1200 GMT). The other Nobel Prizes - for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics will also be presented on Wednesday in Stockholm.
Each prize is endowed with 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.18 million).