From NBC News: This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, was a no-show on Wednesday at the award ceremony in Oslo.
But the Nobel organizers knew Machado would not make it there in time because they spoke with her by phone just before she boarded a plane for Norway and she promised to tell them privately “what we had to go through” to get there.
Machado did not explain why she was delayed but said she was very sad to miss the ceremony and was looking forward to reuniting with her family for the first time in two years.
Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award of her mother’s behalf to a standing ovation and said they would finally be able to embrace after “16 months of living hell.”
As a giant portrait of Machado was displayed beside her empty seat on the stage, Ana Corina Sosa Machado read a speech her mother had prepared.
She said the award “reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace.”
“Freedom is not something we wait for, but something we become,” Machado wrote. “It is a deliberate, personal choice, and the sum of those choices forms the civic ethos that must be renewed every day.”
Machado spoke to the Nobel Prize organizers in a phone call posted to X, saying, “So many people risked their lives in order for me to be in Oslo. And this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people.”
“This is a prize for all Venezuelans,” she continued.
“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 and so many Venezuelan-Norwegians that I know share our struggle.”
Listen to 2025 peace laureate Maria Corina Machado’s exclusive phone call that took place earlier… pic.twitter.com/oOwsklo35k
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) December 10, 2025
Read more at NBC News
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
