María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader and 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner, remains absent from the Oslo award ceremony, with the Nobel Institute uncertain of her arrival time.
Machado, who has been in hiding since Venezuela’s disputed 2024 presidential election, was expected to collect the prize in person on Wednesday. The Nobel Institute cancelled a planned press conference on Tuesday, saying they are “in the dark” about her whereabouts and citing her own remarks about the difficulties of travelling to Norway.
While Machado shares occasional social media updates filmed against plain backgrounds, her exact location is unknown. Her family is already in Oslo.
Venezuelan authorities have labelled her a fugitive due to multiple criminal charges. Attorney General Tarek William Saab told AFP, “By being outside Venezuela and having numerous criminal investigations, she is considered a fugitive,” adding accusations of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, terrorism.”
The 2024 election, which Maduro claims to have won, was fiercely contested by the opposition, who released vote counts indicating their victory. Some countries, including the U.S., recognise opposition candidate Edmundo González as president-elect. Machado was barred from running.
If she attends the ceremony, it will be her first public appearance since January, when she protested Maduro’s inauguration in Caracas. Machado had promised to return to Venezuela after receiving the Nobel Prize, spotlighting the ongoing political repression in her homeland.