Nobel Prize for Venezuelan dissident draws criticism

By Genevieve Glatsky and Henrik Pryser Libell

When the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that it would award María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s de facto opposition leader, the peace prize, it lauded her for pursuing a peaceful transition to democracy.

But as Machado prepares to formally receive the award on Wednesday (10), the committee has come under criticism over her statements as US warships amass in the Caribbean and the Trump administration readies to make a possible move against Venezuela’s autocratic leader.

Machado has firmly embraced President Donald Trump’s military buildup and has publicly expressed her support for using force to oust the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.

She has also repeated debunked claims that Maduro manipulated US elections, fuelling accusations that she is amplifying misinformation to gain favour with the Trump administration.

“It will be a different kind of Nobel Prize ceremony,” said Benedicte Bull, a professor at the University of Oslo and a leading expert on Latin America in Norway. “Much more politicized than what we have seen before.”

While the ceremony typically draws heads of state across the political spectrum, Bull said all the Latin American leaders attending this year will be from the right.

Machado’s own attendance is unclear. She did not appear at a news conference planned Tuesday (9) by the Nobel committee and has not been seen in public in Oslo, the site of the ceremony. A representative for Machado did not respond to requests for comment.

This upcoming ceremony has produced the most vocal protests over a Nobel Peace Prize winner in recent years. “What is special about Machado is that she has dedicated her Peace Prize to a highly controversial president, to put it mildly,” said Asle Sveen, a historian of the Nobel Prize. “It is nearly universally accepted in Norway that Donald Trump attacks liberal democracy.”

When the prize was announced in October, he said those who gathered at the Nobel Institute were taken aback. “Everyone had expected a prize related to either Gaza or Sudan,” he said.

The reactions had initially been “cautiously positive” Sveen added, but soured after she dedicated her prize to the US president and endorsed the attacks against boats the Trump administration claimed were smuggling drugs. The 22 strikes have killed at least 87 people.

A broad range of legal experts have called the strikes illegal because the US military is not permitted to target civilians who do not pose an immediate threat of violence even if they have committed a crime.

Past Nobel Prizes have also been contentious and led to protests and resignations from the Nobel committee, but this year’s reaction is unusually strenuous.

A coalition of Norwegian activist groups held a modest demonstration Tuesday outside the Nobel Institute with the slogan ‘No Peace Prize for Warmongers’, arguing in a statement that the award was being used “to legitimize US military intervention in violation of international law in Latin America”.

The Norwegian Peace Council — a group of 19 organizations promoting disarmament and conflict resolution — typically organizes a torchlight procession every Dec. 10 to honour the laureate. This year it declined to hold the event, saying in a statement that Machado does not “align with the core values” of the council.

“She has repeatedly advocated for maximum-pressure tactics and strong external action against the Maduro government,” Eline Lorentzen, chair of the council’s board, said in an email. Those positions “raised questions about whether her approach reflects the kind of dialogue-based, nonviolent conflict transformation that the Peace Council has historically worked for.”

Instead, the torchlight procession will be hosted by the Nobel Peace Prize museum and the Norwegian Venezuelan Justice Alliance on Wednesday after the ceremony.

Ana María Silva-Harper, a member of a centrist party in her local parliament who moved to Norway 35 years ago from Venezuela, said she planned to attend the procession.

“It is very unfortunate that when we finally get a historic moment, the focus shifts to Trump,” she said. “It has nothing to do with Trump.”

“Machado also receives votes from left-wing parties,” Silva-Harper added. “She is not just an upper-class lady from the political right. I do not like Trump either, but if he is the one who makes something happen and makes the regime fall, then I have to be grateful.”

Norwegian officials said Saturday (6) that Machado would travel to Oslo to receive the prize — a move that carries major risks. The Venezuelan government has warned that she would be treated as a fugitive if she leaves the country, and it is unclear whether she would be allowed to return without being arrested.

Machado has long risked her safety to challenge an authoritarian government that jails opponents, tortures critics and censors the press. She spent more than a year in hiding after Maduro declared victory in a presidential vote last year that was widely seen as rigged.

But as Venezuela’s opposition runs out of pathways for a political transition, her coalition has increasingly turned to Trump.

After the United States had begun attacking boats in the Caribbean in September, she told Fox News that the operation was meant to save lives in both countries because “Maduro is the head of a narco-terrorist structure”.

The Trump administration has said the operations are meant to prevent drug trafficking. But the size of the deployment and Trump’s increasingly explicit threats toward Maduro have fuelled speculation in both countries that Washington’s real aim is regime change.

Machado has also claimed that Maduro leads two drug trafficking groups the Trump administration considers terrorist threats and has used as justification for its strikes.

“The head of the Tren de Aragua is Maduro,” she told the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., on his podcast, referring to the Venezuelan criminal group. “The regime created, promoted and funds the Tren de Aragua.” She told CNN that “the regime has turned Cartel de los Soles into one of the most powerful criminal structures,” referring to another criminal organization.

But US intelligence agencies, regional experts and other Venezuelan opposition figures say there is no evidence Maduro controls either group. While some Venezuelan military officers are involved in the drug trade, analysts doubt these activities add up to true transnational cartels.

Machado, 58, came from an elite background and built her reputation as a political activist and staunch opponent to Venezuela’s socialist ruling party before becoming a popular legislator. She was barred from the 2024 presidential race over what the government called financial irregularities — an accusation she dismissed as a political manoeuvre to sideline her. She instead backed a little-known surrogate, diplomat Edmundo González, who was also in Oslo this week.

González ran against Maduro, who claimed victory. The opposition said its tally showed González won by a wide margin and accused Maduro of stealing the election. The Carter Centre has said the opposition’s count was accurate, and González was recognized by many countries, including the United States, as the legitimate winner.

-New York Times