Venezuela’s Machado will not collect the Nobel Peace Prize in person, says the Nobel Institute

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will not be present in Oslo on Wednesday to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute confirmed, adding that her current whereabouts remain unknown.

Machado, 58, had been scheduled to accept the prize at Oslo City Hall in the presence of King Harald, Queen Sonja, and regional leaders including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa. The ceremony is set to begin at 1 p.m. (1200 GMT).

She had planned to attend despite a decade-long travel ban imposed by Venezuelan authorities and after spending more than a year in hiding.

“Unfortunately, she is not in Norway and will not be on stage at 1 p.m. when the ceremony begins,” Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the institute and permanent secretary of the Nobel award body, told broadcaster NRK. Asked about her location, he replied: “I don’t know.”

The event will continue as planned. In her absence, her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado will accept the prize and deliver the Nobel lecture, Harpviken said.

When the award was announced in October, Machado partly dedicated it to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has previously claimed he deserved the honour himself.

President Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013, accuses Trump of attempting to topple his government to seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and insists Venezuelans would resist any such intervention.

The Nobel Institute did not immediately respond to further queries.

Machado has aligned herself with Trump-aligned hardliners who argue that Maduro is tied to criminal networks posing a threat to U.S. national security, despite questions raised by U.S. intelligence officials. The Trump administration has conducted more than 20 recent military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coast of Latin America—actions criticised by human rights groups, some Democrats, and several Latin American governments as unlawful extrajudicial killings.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s armed forces have been preparing for guerrilla-style resistance or efforts to sow chaos in the event of a U.S. attack, according to sources familiar with the plans and documents reviewed by Reuters.

Machado was barred from contesting the 2024 presidential election despite winning the opposition primary by a wide margin. She went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities intensified arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote. Although the electoral authority and top court declared Maduro the victor, international observers and the opposition say Machado’s candidate won decisively, citing ballot box–level tallies as proof.

Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, said the Nobel award provided “a strong signal of international validation” of election results that had been dismissed. It also elevated Machado as “a person the international community can pin their hopes on,” he said.

“Democratic movements often need a face and a story,” he added.