After 11 months of hiding and missing her Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado appeared in public on Thursday morning. She waved to her supporters outside her hotel balcony in Norway's Oslo.
Machado appeared just hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf, Associated Press said. She sang Venezuela's national anthem and shook hands with her supporter. Meanwhile, people erupted in cheers and chanted “Freedom Freedom” and “Thank you Thank you.”
She was last seen on January 9 this year before being detained briefly for joining supporters in Venezuela's Caracas. She was expected to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, but the head of the Nobel Institute informed that she would not attend.
Machado appeared on the hotel balcony wearing jeans and a puffer jacket and spent several minutes outside the hotel, the report said. Members of her family and her close aides also joined her.
Amid the cheer of “President! President!” Machado hugged many people in the crowd and was quoted as saying, "I want you all back in Venezuela.”
Also read: Daughter of Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado picks up Nobel peace prize in her absence | World News
Past winners unable to attend
Machado has now joined the list of past Nobel Prize laureates who did not attend the award ceremony. With the recent being Narges Mohammadi, as per the Nobel Prize website.
- Narges Mohammadi- Narges is a human rights advocate and freedom fighter, who was awarded the Peace Prize in 2023 but couldn't attend as she was imprisoned in Tehran.
- Ales Bialiatski- Belarus human rights advocate who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, but was in prison during the ceremony
- Liu Xiaobo- Chinese human rights activist, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, did not attend as he was serving an 11-year sentence.
- Aung San Suu Kyi- Burmese politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was on house arrest in Myanmar at the time of the ceremony.
- Lech Walesa- A Polish trade union leader who could not attend the ceremony for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. Walesa was afraid that if he travelled to Oslo, he would not be allowed to return to Poland.
Meanwhile, Machado's daughter Ana Corina Soa accepted the prize on her behalf and said that Machado wants to “live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose.”
(With inputs from Associated Press)