Venezuelan opposition leader wins Nobel Peace prize

THE Nobel Peace Prize was yesterday awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader and democracy activist, Maria Corina Machado, who was forced to live in hiding in what has become a “brutal” state, the Nobel jury said.

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Machado, who has lived in hiding for the past year, was honoured “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chairperson of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

“I am in shock,” the opposition leader could be heard saying in a video.

Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a “brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis,” Frydnes said.

“The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country’s own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country,” he said.