Venezuelan opposition calls for rallies ahead of leader’s Nobel ceremony

The Venezuelan opposition called for rallies in many places around the world on December 6, four days before its leader, Maria Corina Machado, is scheduled to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

Machado, who has been in hiding since August 2024, has stated that she plans to take the prize in person in Oslo, but her presence will not be confirmed until the event, on December 10.

“The Nobel belongs to everyone...let’s mobilise around the world to receive the Nobel Peace Prize together,” said the notification, which circulated on social media.

It did not specify which cities will host marches or whether Machado, who has previously emerged from hiding to lead demonstrations, will take part.

Opposition participation in Venezuela has been quiet since the detention of about 2,400 individuals during protests following President Nicolas Maduro’s most recent elections in July 2024.

Machado has accused Maduro of stealing last year’s presidential election, a charge supported by many in the international world. She also agrees with Washington’s judgement that he controls a narcotics organisation.

And the Nobel Peace Laureate has praised the increased US military activity in the region, which has seen strikes on accused drug boats kill at least 83 people in the Caribbean and Pacific since September.

“We are on the threshold of a new era,” Machado declared in a video released on social media on Tuesday.

“The long and violent abuse of power by this regime is coming to an end,” she informed the crowd. Maduro has been in office since 2013.

On October 10, the committee announced the Nobel Peace Prize, citing Machado’s “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Several Latin American presidents and politicians have expressed a willingness to follow Machado to Norway.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab told AFP on Thursday that if Machado leaves the country, she will be deemed a “fugitive” from court because she is under “numerous criminal investigations”.