NEWS COMMENTARY: The Norwegian Nobel Committee surprised just about everyone, including its former leader, on Friday by awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to a woman who hadn’t turned up on the lists of candidates most likely to win. Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela, however, is “a brave and committed champion of peace,” according to the committee, “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
The prize was unexpected, but former committee leader Berit Reiss Andersen quickly branded it as “part of a proud tradition” of Nobel Peace Prize winners. The committee often strives to bring various struggles for peace and democracy to the world’s attention. This time Andersen’s successor Jørgen Watne Frydnes and the other four members on the Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Machado, for her efforts to “achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela, currently under the harsh rule of Nicolas Maduro.
Frydnes called Machado “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.” The now-58-year-old leader of Venezuela’s opposition has said herself that she’s been fighting “for ballots over bullets” ever since she first started promoting judicial independence, human rights and democratic elections more than 20 years ago.
In August of last year she felt forced into hiding because of all the threats lodged against her by Maduro and his regime. She wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal that she feared for her life, her freedom “and that of my fellow countrymen from the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.” His government has also banned her from leaving Venezuela, so it remains highly unclear and doubtful whether Machado will be able to accept her Nobel Peace Prize at the formal award ceremony in Oslo on December 10.
The prize to Machado also reflects the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s desire to reward her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela,” which hasn’t had fair and free elections for many years. Frydnes said she has been “a key unifying figure” in the country’s once deeply divided political opposition that shared the desire for free elections and representative government.
“This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy,” Frydnes said from the newly restored podium at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo on Friday. “At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.”
He stressed how Venezuela has “evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country,” which, like Norway, had built up an important oil industry, into a “brutal, authoritarian state now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis. Most Venezuelans live in deep poverty, even as the few at the top enrich themselves.” Frydnes also noted how the opposition in Venezuela “has been systematically suppressed by means of election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment.” Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate at last year’s election, “but the regime blocked her candidacy,” Frydnes said, and also refused to accept the election result when another opposition candidate won.
“Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace,” said Frydnes, notably adding that “we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence.” What’s happening in Venezuela, he said, “is not unique … we see the same trends globally … where rule of law is abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarization.”
The prize to Machado came after months of unabashed lobbying for it by the newly re-elected US President Donald Trump. That’s put pressure on the Norwegian Nobel Committee but Frydnes made no mention of that. He responded to a question from state broadcaster NRK about Trump’s desire for a Peace Prize by stressing that the committee is accustomed to such campaigning in connection with the prize.
There’s no mistaking, though, that many of the threats to democratic society that Frydnes spoke of on Friday have been rising in the US since, and even before, Trump took office again in January. Trump challenged the election result when he lost in 2020, he’s on a constant campaign against media coverage that he doesn’t like, he’s been using the courts to go after former opponents or others he views as disloyal, and he’s been keen to send the National Guard into some American cities. He even said recently that he “hates” his opponents, seemingly not unlike Maduro.
Initial reaction from the White House was negative, with a spokesman expressing dissatisfaction that Trump didn’t win the Peace Prize this year. He also claimed that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had put politics ahead of peace. At the same time, though, Trump has also been on a campaign against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela, even ordering the US military to fire at vessels off the Venezuelan coast. Speculation has been rising over whether Trump is even considering some sort of action against Maduro and his government itself.
In that sense, a Peace Prize to Machado may be a brilliant move on the part of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to neither “insult” nor appease an unpredictable US president who clearly had hoped to bask in the glory of a Nobel Peace Prize himself. Trump himself may even like a Peace Prize to someone who opposes Maduro.
The prize to Machado may also send a message to Trump. It highlights prize benefactor Alfred Nobel’s criteria for Nobel Peace Prize winners, and all the things Trump should not be doing as long as he hopes to win one himself. It also wards off criticism from him, because he may be delighted to see Venezuela’s leaders criticized instead.
Frydnes pointed out that Maria Corina Machado “has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace.” Only by using them might Trump win his own Peace Prize one day.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
