00:00Let's now go live with our special envoy Juno Soner who is in Norway to have more details on
00:04this important press conference by the Norwegian Movement for Peace. Let's listen.
00:11Hello, good afternoon from Oslo the capital of Norway. We are finding ourselves in a little bit
00:21tense circumstances because the Nobel Prize will be given to Maria Corina Machado,
00:27the leader of the extreme right Venezuelan opposition, but there are a lot of criticisms.
00:34Right now where I am here is the Literature House, one of the most important cultural buildings here in
00:41Oslo and here took place a press conference of different civil society organizations and also
00:47some political parties who presented their reasons why they reject giving Maria Corina Machado this
00:55prize. And I have one of their representatives and I would like to ask you, thank you for taking
01:00the time, what are your reasons to reject this decision of the Nobel Prize Committee?
01:06It can be put in one word. She is the antithesis of what Nobel intended with asking for a prize to
01:13a champion of peace. Can you explain that? Why? Why is she the antithesis?
01:17She doesn't work for the brotherhood between nations. She doesn't work for diplomacy and talk between
01:27confronting partners. She's not anti-militaristic. She breaks all the elements that Nobel puts into
01:36as requirements for being a champion of peace. And we were told that there's also a complaint,
01:43a legal complaint about this decision in Sweden ongoing. Can you explain that a bit?
01:48Yeah. You know, I mean, we in my organization, Lay Down Your Arms, have been for many years now,
01:55at least the last 15 years, been working for the Nobel Prize to be listening to and looking into what
02:04Nobel really wanted. And we found that very few times are the prize given to worthy people, according to
02:12Nobel's thinking. And we wanted now the mother of the foundation, because Norway's Peace Prize
02:20Committee is not autonomous. They have to answer to the Swedish foundation. They've asked to be
02:27exempt from having to follow Nobel's will, which is nonsense, you know. You don't do that. And they've
02:34been told, get back, follow the rules. But they are too big to fail. So they are continuing their
02:41sort of pretending to be following Nobel's will, using the words, like now, you know, they say that
02:49she works for democracy, she works for this and she works for that. And none of it is real. So it's
02:56made up both, they can't, the Nobel Committee hasn't read the will of Nobel, they say they don't work
03:03according to that. And they don't look into the reality of the person that they're giving bad research
03:09on the people they give the prize to. Bad research is a good version of it. I think it's politically
03:17instrumentalizing and weaponizing politically the prize to fit some aggressive. This term,
03:25the US aggression against Venezuela has now found an ally in the Nobel Committee.
03:32And what would happen if you became, if you get support and your decision, your demand would be
03:40fulfilled by the authorities in Sweden? If the Swedes follow and follow up the way they react to the
03:48Norwegian foundation as they do to other foundations, the money will have to be given back. Of course, in
03:55Norway, the prize, we could say they are too big to fail. So I guess that the Norwegian government will
04:01come in and bail them out in a way. But at least there will be a strong signal straight out your act.
04:10Thank you very much. So this is one of the points where there is mounting rejection and protest against
04:18this decision of the Nobel Prize going to Maria Corina Machado. There is a legal ground. There is a
04:25political ground. We heard much today also about the rejection that it was never Nobel's idea back then
04:34that exporting democracy was part of this prize. This was not the idea. The idea was to promote peace
04:42and not to regime change or export democracy as it is handed by the Nobel Committee today. And also,
04:49in addition to that, we heard a lot of arguments, strong arguments in specifically against the political
04:57positions that Maria Corina Machado has taken in Venezuela and beyond, as she has been a caller for
05:04even foreign intervention into her country, as she has been very sympathetic to all military mount up by
05:10the United States around Venezuela and the Caribbean, as well as her pronounced support for Israeli Prime
05:18Minister Netanyahu's genocidal policies in Gaza. So there's also that aspect which a lot of experts
05:25here in the press conference have emphasized why Maria Corina Machado is, as my guest just said,
05:32is the anti thesis of a peacemaker of a peace awarded person. Today's afternoon there will be also a march
05:42here in the city in front of the Nobel Institute protesting that decision and tomorrow there is also
05:50another gathering planned by the civil society organizations and political movements which are
05:56decided to protest to protest this decision. But this, what my guest just told me, this legal complaint
06:03against it might at the end really turn up the issue upside down if Maria Corina Machado would be forced to
06:12give the price back. And I'm told that who is to decide about it legally, these are civil servants in Sweden.
06:20So it's not a political decision by itself. I mean, there might be influence, of course, by political forces,
06:27but the complaint has been made before civil servants, before the bureaucracy, and they will examine the will
06:36as left behind by Alfred Nobel and they will look at the decision of this year and they might well as civil
06:42servants decide, yes, the complaint is right. That, of course, will take some time, but if it ends up like this,
06:49that would be a huge defeat for Maria Corina Machado and all the forces that try to weaponize the Nobel Prize
06:57for political purposes far beyond peace or quite the contrary to peace.
07:05Thank you, Yunos, for the details coming from this important press conference that took place today.
07:09We're going to stay tuned with everything happening in Norway and we'll have more updates, I'm sure, in upcoming news.
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