OSLO, Norway (AP) — The head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will not attend the awards ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday.
Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken told public broadcaster NRK the Venezuelan opposition leader was not in the Norwegian capital on the day of the ceremony and her daughter will accept the prize on Machado’s behalf.
The institute did not immediately respond to emails or calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
A day earlier, a news conference that Machado was expected to attend was canceled. She last appeared in public 11 months ago.
Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.
The 58-year-old’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10, and she was described as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024 election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent that he intensified.
