"Maria Corina Machado is the antithesis of what the Nobel Prize represents"

teleSUR English

The Norwegian Peace Movement held a press conference rejecting the Nobel Committee's decision to award Maria Corina macho with the Nobel Peace Prize. Let's go live with our special envoy Yunus Soner in Norway for all the details. teleSUR

Transcript

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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