Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will not receive the Nobel Peace Prize in person at the award ceremony in Oslo, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said, with her current whereabouts unknown.
Ms Machado was due to receive the award at a ceremony this afternoon at Oslo City Hall in the presence of King Harald, Queen Sonja and Latin American leaders, including Argentine President Javier Milei and Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa.
The ceremony starts at 1pm (12pm Irish time).
Ms Machado was due to receive the award in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding.
"She is unfortunately not in Norway and will not stand onstage at Oslo City Hall at 1pm when the ceremony starts," Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the institute and the permanent secretary of the award body, told broadcaster NRK.
Asked where she was, Mr Harpviken said: "I don't know."
The ceremony will still go ahead. When a laureate is unable to attend, a close family member usually steps in to receive the prize and deliver the Nobel lecture in place of the laureate.
In this case, it will be Ms Machado's daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, Mr Harpviken said.
When she won the prize in October, Ms Machado dedicated it in part to US President Donald Trump, who has said he himself deserved the honour.
President Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013, says Mr Trump is trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves and that Venezuelan citizens and armed forces will resist any such attempt.
