Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has been hiding for months, and even she didn’t go to collect her award, but her daughter went on stage. Ana Corina Sosa, the daughter of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, accepted Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize on her mother’s behalf at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall. But why?And the answer is simple and that is the fearful for her safety under the authoritarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro Moros, BBC reported. Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general said Machado would be considered a fugitive if she travelled to Norway to collect her prize, saying she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism”.Just before the ceremony, Machado sent a voice message saying she was “safe” and on her way to the Norwegian capital but would not make it to the ceremony in time. Machado’s daughter began by speaking of the personal impact of not having seen her mother for two years. Sosa told the audience: “And as I wait [for] that moment to hug her, to kiss her, to embrace her, after two years, I think of the other daughters and sons who do not get to see their mothers.” She then read the lecture written by her mother, saying Venezuelans “will hug again, fall in love again, hear our streets fill with laughter and music”. “All the simple joys the world takes for granted will be ours. Because in the end, our journey towards freedom has always lived inside us. We are returning to ourselves. We are returning home,” Sosa added. The audience, which included members of Norway’s royal family, responded with a long round of applause and a standing ovation.Machado gives a surprise glimpse to supportersMachado appeared in Oslo in the middle of the night, waving from the balcony of the Grand Hotel in what was her first public appearance since January. She had made the covert journey despite a travel ban and a threat from the Venezuelan govt that she would be labelled as a fugitive if she made the trip. In an emotional moment, Machado waved to cheering supporters who had gathered outside the Norwegian capital’s Grand Hotel, blowing them kisses and singing with them. She then came outside and greeted them in person, climbing over the security barricades to get closer. “Maria!” “Maria!” they shouted, holding their phones aloft to record the historic moment.Machado said she had missed the graduations of her children and the weddings of her daughter and one of her sons after more than 16 months apart. In an interview with the BBC’s Lucy Hockings following her balcony appearance outside the hotel, she described the reunion with her family. “For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she said in the interview. “Suddenly in the matter of a few hours I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.” During the BBC interview, Machado had many rosary beads hanging around her neck, which she said people had given to her outside the hotel.
