The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, urged on Wednesday the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to accept the results of the 2024 elections and resign from his post to lay the foundations for a 'democracy' in the country, as that is the will of the Venezuelan people. 'He must lay the foundations for a peaceful transition to democracy, because that is the will of the Venezuelan people,' said Frydnes. 'María Corina Machado and the Venezuelan opposition have lit a flame that no torture, no lie, and no fear can extinguish,' he said in his speech at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. At the ceremony, which the Venezuelan opposition leader did not arrive in time for, but her speech will be read by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, Frydnes accused Maduro of turning Venezuela 'into a brutal and authoritarian state mired in a deep humanitarian and economic crisis' while 'a small elite at the top, protected by power, weapons, and impunity, enriches themselves'.
