Venezuela’s Machado won’t attend Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, Norway’s public broadcaster reports

By Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado will not attend Wednesday’s award ceremony in Oslo, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported.

Under persecution from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, Machado has been living in hiding since last year and her current whereabouts are unknown.

“She is not in Norway now, and will not be on stage in Oslo,” Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, told NRK.

Machado’s daughter will accept the prize and deliver a speech on her mother’s behalf, NRK reported.

Machado received the accolade for tirelessly promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and “for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in October that Machado’s attendance at the ceremony was up for debate.

“We always hope to have the laureate with us in Oslo, but this is a serious security situation which needs to be handled first,” Frydnes said.

CNN has reached out to the Norwegian Nobel Institute for comment.

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