Machado left Venezuela and has been living in Oslo after she secretly left her home country in defiance of a travel ban imposed by authorities. She also spent almost a year in hiding
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said on Thursday that she is planning to take her award back to Venezuela, but fell short of mentioning when she will return.
Venezuelan opposition figure Machado arrived in Oslo earlier today, failing to reach the Norwegian capital in time for the prize ceremony held hours earlier.
Machado left Venezuela and has been living in Oslo after she secretly left her home country in defiance of a travel ban imposed by authorities. She also spent almost a year in hiding.
“I came to receive the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people and I will take it back to Venezuela at the correct moment,” she told reporters at parliament, dressed in white. “Of course I will not say when that is.”
The Nobel Prize winner made her first public appearance in Oslo today after being in hiding for nearly 11 months. She was due to hold a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere later.
Machado was barred from running in the presidential election last year, despite having won the opposition’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August that year after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.
Her daughter,
Ana Corina Sosa Machado, went to the event to receive the prize on her mother’s behalf.
“It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace,” Reuters quoted Machado as saying through Ana Corina Sosa Machado, whose voice faltered as she spoke of her mother.
“And more than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” she added.
A large portrait of a smiling Machado was displayed in Oslo City Hall to stand in for her, drawing cheers and applause from the audience when Norwegian Nobel Committee head Joergen Watne Frydnes announced during his speech that Machado would be arriving in Oslo.
Referencing past laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, he said that champions of democracy are expected “to pursue their aims with a moral purity their opponents never display.”
With inputs from agencies
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