Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado missed yesterday’s ceremony to award her the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said.
Machado last appeared in public 11 months ago, although reports said that she was in Oslo yesterday.
Machado’s daughter accepted the prize on her behalf.
Photo: AFP
“What we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: That to have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” Ana Corina Sosa Machado said as she accepted the award on behalf of her mother.
Ana Corina Sosa Machado said that 2,500 people had been “kidnapped, disappeared, tortured” under the rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“These are crimes against humanity, documented by the United Nations. State terrorism, deployed to bury the will of the people,” she added.
Photo: AFP
Maria Corina Machado has been living in hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas.
The 58-year-old’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10, and she was described as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Photo: Bloomberg
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