Machado’s daughter accepts Nobel Peace Prize in Venezuelan opposition leader’s absence

The daughter of María Corina Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on her mother’s behalf Wednesday.

(AP) — The daughter of María Corina Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on her mother’s behalf Wednesday, and said in a speech written by the Venezuelan opposition leader that her country shows the world “we must be willing to fight for freedom.”

Machado has been in hiding and hasn’t been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told the award ceremony that “María Corina Machado has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”

“Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo,” he said to applause.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in her place.

“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” she said. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”

Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said, before indicating that she was about to board a plane.

Machado said that “since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them. And as soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I’ve have not seen for two years and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians that I know that share our struggle and our fight.”