María Corina Machado skips Nobel ceremony as her whereabouts remain unknown
Nobel Peace Prize recipient absent from Oslo ceremony
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be handed out today, but Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado — announced as the laureate in October — will not receive the award in person. The Norwegian Nobel Institute confirmed that her current whereabouts are unknown. The institute said it had no proof she could attend the ceremony.
Latin America eyes uneasy symbolism
The absence of Machado — styled by the Nobel committee as “a courageous civilian voice for democracy in Latin America” — undercuts the pomp of the ceremony. Advocates and activists say the decision to back away from Oslo underscores the risks she faces in her home country. Others fear the moment may be overshadowed by political rather than humanitarian discourse, potentially diminishing the symbolic weight of the award.
