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Venezuela’s Nobel Winner Says She Will Appear in Oslo After Missing Ceremony
María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, said she was on her way to Norway after living in hiding in her country, where officials have threatened her with arrest.
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Ana Corina Sosa, the daughter of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, speaking at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on Wednesday in Oslo.Credit. Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Gideon Shecklestein and Dean Henderson
Gideon Shecklestein Reported from Beriln, Germany, and Dean Henderson from North Dakota
Dec. 11, 2025
María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said on Wednesday that she was on her way to Oslo after failing to appear at the ceremony to collect the prize. Her trip, she told a member of the Nobel committee, required people to risk their lives to ensure her safe transit.
Ms. Machado’s emergence from hiding in Venezuela and the danger involved in being smuggled out of the country in the face of threats by the government to arrest her represent a perilous new phase in the crisis gripping the country. Controversy already shrouded Ms. Machado’s selection for the peace prize because she has been an enthusiastic supporter of using U.S. military force to remove Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian president.
“As soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I have not seen for two years,” Ms. Machado told Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Nobel committee, according to an audio clip of a phone call released by the prize’s organizers.
Ms. Machado’s intention to go to Norway immediately raised questions about her future, since returning to Venezuela would place her at risk of being arrested.
Ana Corina Sosa, the daughter of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, speaking at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on Wednesday in Oslo.Credit. Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ms. Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize on her mother’s behalf in Oslo, the Norwegian capital. The Norwegian Nobel Institute had awarded Ms. Machado the prize in October for her contributions to advancing democracy in Venezuela.
The confusion surrounding Ms. Machado’s whereabouts made this year’s Nobel ceremony in Oslo the most unpredictable in recent years.
Ms. Machado is thought to have been living in hiding in Venezuela since Venezuela’s government embarked on a campaign of repression against opposition leaders and protesters angered over Mr. Maduro’s move to fraudulently declare himself the winner of a presidential election last year.
Ana Corina Sosa, the daughter of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, speaking at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on Wednesday in Oslo.Credit. Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Maduro claimed to have won the race despite vote counts, confirmed by independent monitoring organizations, that showed that he lost by a wide margin to Edmundo González, who ran in Ms. Machado’s place after she was barred from the election.
Venezuela’s government has said that Ms. Machado would be considered a fugitive if she left the country, laying bare the risks involved in traveling to Norway to receive the prize. It is not clear if Venezuelan authorities would allow Ms. Machado to return without being detained.