The daughter of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, accepted the award on her mother’s behalf in Oslo on Wednesday, declaring her mother is determined to “live in a free Venezuela” and would “never give up on that purpose.”
Machado, who has been in hiding since Venezuela’s disputed presidential election in July 2024, was unable to attend the ceremony. The Nobel Institute confirmed she is “safe” and will travel to Oslo at a later time.
Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, delivered the Nobel lecture written by her mother before a gathering at Oslo City Hall. She began by speaking of the personal toll of their separation.
“As I wait for that moment to hug her, to kiss her, to embrace her, after two years, I think of the other daughters and sons who do not get to see their mothers,” Sosa told the audience.
Reading from her mother’s text, Sosa conveyed a message of resilient hope to the Venezuelan people: “We will hug again. Fall in love again. Hear our streets fill with laughter and music… All the simple joys the world takes for granted will be ours.” The speech concluded with the affirmation, “Because in the end, our journey towards freedom has always lived inside us. We are returning to ourselves. We are returning home.”
The Nobel Institute awarded Machado the prize for her “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela.
By James Kisoo
