OSLO
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said Friday that this year’s winner, Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, was a “key unifying figure” for the country’s democratic opposition.
“Machado has been a key unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided, an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free election and representative government,” Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, said when announcing the winner.
"I'm in shock!" Machado is heard saying by telephone to Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who replaced her as candidate in the last presidential elections after she was barred from running.
"We're shocked with joy," replies Gonzalez, who went into exile almost a year ago. "What is this? I can't believe it," insists the 58-year-old Machado, who lives in hiding in Venezuela.
He added that “Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal and authoritarian state”.
-BSS
